


Deja Vu

by Angel_Negra



Series: Future's Legacy [2]
Category: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers Time Force
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-04 23:05:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1086736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel_Negra/pseuds/Angel_Negra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After defeating Vypra's super demon, the Time Force and Lightspeed Rescue Rangers find themselves flung through time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deja Vu

**Author's Note:**

> Set directly after 'Time for Lightspeed'. This is the second in the 'Future's Legacy' series, following Sycophancy. Thanks to Riv for the check over, and to everyone that's helped me on this monster since I started it years ago.  
> Dedication: To the seasons 'Power Rangers Time Force' and 'Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue'. They deserved better.  
> Cover by Nickygabriel.

[](http://s794.photobucket.com/user/ladygabriel1/media/art/deja.jpg.html)  


From the landmarks Wes could see, he figured they were about an hour out of Silver Hills. Which meant at least another forty five minutes to Mariner Bay. He wondered if he could talk Carter into trying his Vector Cycle. Then he could ride in the Rescue Rover and be able to chat without shouting.

Escorting the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers back to their city seemed like a good idea when he was standing beside Carter and laughing, but he was getting bored. He decided to try his idea on Carter.

Jen's voice came over the line before he could trigger his comm. "Guys, do you see that?"

Wes looked up at the road ahead and saw a mutant standing in their path. It wore a white suit with large shell-like shoulder pads. From what Wes could make out of its face, it looked like a shaved ferret. It held some sort of strange machine in its hands.

"I see it," said Wes, pulling his Vector Cycle to a stop. The rest of his team followed suit, and Wes heard the Rescue Rover screeching to a halt behind them.

"Circuit, can you tell us anything?" asked Katie as she stepped off her Vector Cycle cautiously.

"His name's Porticon," said Circuit. "I'm pulling up his file now."

"Porticon?" said Joel, hopping out of the Rescue Rover. "Sounds like those toilets they have at construction sites."

Kelsey giggled.

Both teams lined up, holding ready stances. Wes and his team standing just a bit ahead of Lightspeed, since they were already morphed. Something suddenly exploded off to Wes' right and he spun to see Eric, also morphed, flying towards them. Wes had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Ryan, the closest, managed to half catch Eric, breaking his fall.

"Are you okay?" asked Ryan.

Eric shrugged Ryan's hands off, staggering to his feet. "I'm fine."

Wes rolled his eyes; Eric never changed. A familiar giggle made him look back up. Nadira came dancing into view, Ransik following her at a more sedate pace.

"Twelve little Rangers, all in a row," giggled Nadira.

"Wes," whispered Katie, as they all settled into fighting stances. "Three o'clock, behind the bush."

Wes glanced over quickly, not wanting to take his eyes off the mutants in front of them for too long. He blinked in shock. A strange mutant ducked back down, but not before Wes recognized him. Wes and Katie had met him when they'd first faced Angelcon. The one who'd called himself Domon.

Before Wes could react, Ransik pulled one of his bone blades out of his back and blasted the Rangers. It knocked them down hard, demorphing them. Wes gasped in pain, desperately struggling to his feet, trying to make his limbs move the way he wanted them too. Eric, Ryan and Dana managed to get up too. Katie made it to her knees and turned to check on Trip.

Ransik laughed and turned to Porticon. "They're all yours, Porticon. Remember, I don't want them getting back, ever!"

Wes saw "Domon" levelling his trident-like weapon at Eric, and he ran forward. "Eric! Look out!" He had time to see Ransik start to turn in surprise. And see Ryan rushing forwards and grabbing Nadira's arm, shoving it up so it wasn't pointed at Chad; then Wes slammed into Eric, knocking them both down as the blast from the trident hit them.

It didn't hurt, which surprised Wes. It tingled a bit. He looked down to see Eric blinking at him. Wes rolled off Eric as "Domon" chuckled softly. He'd made it to his knees in time to see Ryan and Nadira get blasted by the trident. The two of them staggered apart, Nadira letting out a shriek of outrage.

Ransik roared and levelled a blast at "Domon", who swore and, pointing his trident to the ground, vanished. Ransik turned to Porticon. "Do it now!!"

Porticon nodded his head up and down rapidly, "Yes, sir. Ransik, sir." He aimed the machine at the Rangers and pushed a button.

Wes had time to throw his arms in front of his face before the world went dark.

*

Joel opened his eyes and couldn't see. He panicked for half second before he realized his hat was on his face. Heaving a sigh, he sat up, pulling the hat off as he went. Looking around curiously, he tried to place his surroundings. The trees didn't look that Californian to him and it was hard to see the ground in the clearing with all the smaller bushes. Joel spotted a cluster of bright, unnatural green and orange and he crawled closer slowly. "Trip?"

He scrambled over faster at the answering moan, pushing aside leaves and flowers.

"Hey man, you okay?" He asked, leaning over Trip.

"I think so," said Trip slowly. He took Joel's offered hand and let himself be pulled up slowly into a sitting position. "Where are we?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's not space or an ocean," said Joel dryly. "That's about as far as I got into my investigation."

Trip nodded absently, taking in the clearing. "Have you seen any of the others?"

Joel shook his head. He opened his mouth to suggest trying their morphers when a branch snapped loudly from their left. Joel shot to his feet, peering through the trees. He saw a flash of pink and orange and smiled as Dana and Jen walked into the clearing.

"You're awake, good," said Dana with a smile. She peered into Joel's eyes as she neared them. "How are you guys feeling? No signs of dizziness?"

Joel shook his head. He pushed his hat back so she could get a better look at his pupils. "We're fine. What about the others?"

"We didn't spot anyone else yet," said Jen, crossing her arms. "We were keeping a tight perimeter search until you two woke up."

"But we've also been trying the morphers and the walkie-talkies," Dana added. "No response yet."

Trip tapped at his morpher thoughtfully. It bleeped at him and he frowned. "I-I think something might be jamming the signal."

"That's always a bad sign," said Joel. He stood up with a sigh and did a little bit of a dance for Dana so she could see everything was in working order. "So now what?"

"We saw hints of campfire smoke to the east," Jen said. "We should head there and see if we can't find some other people. It'll give us a good idea of where we are."

"And when," added Trip; he was still on the ground, poking at his morpher.

Joel glanced at Dana and shared a confused look with her. "That happens to you guys a lot?"

Trip looked up from his morpher to share a look with Jen. "It wouldn't be the first time?" he offered, scrambling to his feet.

Joel raised his eyebrows, curious. "Really? Because Angela would love to talk to you then. She still can't figure out how Carter supposedly got caught in a time loop."

Biting his lip, Trip looked to Jen. She nodded to Joel and Dana firmly. "Let's worry about where we are first," she said, stalking out of the clearing. Trip gave them a warm smile before following quickly.

Blinking at their backs in surprise, Joel turned to Dana and grinned widely. "Wanna play I Spy as we walk?"

Dana snorted and started after the other two Rangers. "That wasn't funny when we were flying home from the moon, and it's not going to be much better now," she said, fighting a grin.

"Oh come on, it's totally different! It's all green and no black!" he shouted after her before jogging to catch up.

They were barely half a mile from the clearing when Joel was able to make out the faint smoke trails of campfires in the air. He counted about five or six. "We're either going to see a Girl Scout convention or a village with no easy access to electricity," he said. Which would partially explain why the walkie-talkies weren't picking up anything, between the trees and no radio towers or electricity in the area, they'd have to be very close to the other Rangers to get anything. It still didn't explain the morphers though.

They kept walking towards the village, and Joel was just about to suggest I Spy again when a mechanical chatter echoed through the woods. Jen held up a hand and they all froze.

"Yes, I can see that it's an ancient Japanese village. I have working eyes," snapped a familiar voice.

"Porticon," whispered Trip.

Joel swore mentally as they all crouched down and crept towards the sound of the mutant's voice.

The mechanical chatter picked up again. Joel pushed a branch to the side to see Porticon talking to a small group of Cyclobots in a clearing. Joel shifted a bit closer to Dana to see around the large rock in his way. The chatter followed along with one of the Cyclobots earnestly nodding at Porticon and gripping his arm.

Porticon angrily jerked his arm free of the Cyclobot's grasp and shoved it so it stumbled into one of the trees on the edge of the clearing. "Of course the Rangers will be by eventually. The effects of teleportation don't last that long. What I want from you is to find the three Wolfblades. I can't exactly team up with them if they don't know we're here, now can I?"

Jen let out a soft huff. When she had the attention of Joel and the other two, she jerked her head behind her, and slowly backed away from their hiding place. Joel let Dana and Trip go first, glancing back at Porticon before he followed. Once they were out of earshot, Jen turned to face them.

"This isn't good," she said.

"No kidding," said Joel, crossing his arms. "And what exactly is a Wolfblade?"

"Weapons, maybe?" Dana raised an eyebrow.

A chilling howl echoed through the forest. It was quickly joined by two others. "Or maybe not actual weapons," said Joel, slipping into a ready stance.

Something streaked past them, the speed and winds it created knocking all four of them down.

"Crash," said Jen, struggling to her feet. "That was headed towards Porticon. Come on!"

They raced back towards where they'd last seen Porticon. Joel shoved a thick mesh of branches out of the way and froze. There were about ten Cyclobots pointing blasters at them, and behind them Porticon was talking to a large bipedal brown wolf, which Joel figured was one of the Wolfblades. As one, Porticon and the Wolfblade turned towards them and grinned.

"Just in time for your destruction, Rangers," said Porticon with a cackle.

"We'll see about that," Jen said. She glanced at the rest of them and held up her morpher. "Ready?" They nodded.

"Time for Time Force!" shouted Jen and Trip, morphing in a flash of light. They pulled their blasters.

"Lightspeed Rescue!" Nothing happened.

Joel stared at his morpher in shock. "Oh, crap," whispered Dana. They shared a look of horror.

The Cyclobots open fire and Dana and Joel dove to the side, ducking behind the large rock there. Joel kept rolling, right under the guard of the first Cyclobot and surged to his feet, grabbing for its blaster. The Cyclobot beside him went down with a crash as Dana took its legs out. Two more of them went down in a shower of blaster fire just as Joel got the blaster free and punched his Cyclobot in the face.

The Wolfblade let out a howl and charged. It streaked past Trip, knocking him down in a shower of sparks. Joel levelled the blaster at the streak, trying to get a clear shot. A Cyclobot kicked him in the stomach and he landed with a grunt. Cursing himself for getting distracted, he kicked its leg out and rolled to his knees, blasting it in the chest. It fell back and another Cyclobot immediately landed on it, sparking. Joel glanced over at Dana long enough to share a grin and they moved as one to shoot another Cyclobot down.

"Chrono Sabers!" shouted Jen. She charged Porticon, slashing him across the chest and making him stumble back. The Wolfblade streaked past, sending her flying.

"Look out!" called Trip, slashing the last three Cyclobots with his Chrono Sabers.

The Wolfblade paused in the centre of the clearing and howled. Joel raised his blaster and saw Dana doing the same from the corner of his eye. They fired at the same time, but the Wolfblade was already moving. Joel had half a second to realize it was coming right for them when someone wrapped in green energy dropped down in front of them.

The stranger, it took Joel a second to realize it wasn't Trip, slashed a sword quickly and the Wolfblade flew backwards with a howl of pain. It staggered to its feet and flinched back when the stranger settled into a fighting stance, sword ready. The Wolfblade snarled something in Japanese and streaked out of the clearing, howling as it went.

Porticon stared after it before glaring at them. "This isn't over," he snarled. He tapped a button on his belt and vanished in a flash of light.

The stranger started in surprise, then turned in a slow circle, apparently checking for any other threats before relaxing and sheathing his sword. The green energy swirled and sucked into a glowing amulet around his neck, revealing an Asian man dressed like a samurai. He gave them a polite bow and a slightly confused smile. "Shiba-san," he said, turning to Jen, who was climbing to her feet, still morphed. He kept speaking, but Joel had no idea what he was saying, it sounded like Japanese though.

Jen glanced at Trip hesitantly before turning back to the stranger and giving him a bow of her own. "I'm sorry," she said. "We're not from the Shiba family. We're here because of the monster that was talking to your Wolfblade monster."

The stranger replied to her in Japanese again. Joel leaned over to Dana and whispered, "You're not understanding this either, right?" She shook her head.

"Our morphers translate for us," said Trip as he dropped down beside them. He powered down with a pale flash, making the stranger jump. Trip gave him an apologetic smile and a little wave. "I think I can rig something up for you guys." He tugged his pack off his shoulder and started rifling through it.

"Can you also rig up something to tell us what's going on?" asked Joel, feeling lost and only joking a little bit.

"And why our morphers aren't working?" adds Dana.

"I think we're in the past," said Trip absently. "Well, further in the past."

"…What do you mean, further in the past?" said Joel. He'd agreed with the rest of his team that Time Force were going with the clock theme because of the clock tower home base. He suddenly had a sinking feeling about that theory.

Trip looked up, startled. "Um. Uh, Jen?" he called.

**

Joel flopped down underneath the large cherry tree with a sigh. It was fast becoming his favourite resting spot. They'd been stuck in the town for three days now, no sign of Porticon or any of the other Rangers. Trip had been able to get in contact with Circuit long enough to establish that none of the other Time Force Rangers were with them, but it was harder to track Joel's team. They were pretty sure that no one else came back with them, but Joel was still making some careful searches of the surrounding areas, using his walkie talkie.

He mostly went with a few of the villagers, though Samurai Liang helped out too. Joel was getting good at communicating through facial expressions and hand gestures. Trip was still working on translators for Dana and Joel - because apparently he was 'from the future' smart and Joel was still trying to wrap his head around that one; Jen busy going over strategy with Samurai Liang when he wasn't running searched with Joel. Dana had managed to develop a bond with the village healer that transcended language, and between the two of them, they'd fixed up every injury they could find.

Still, it was too quiet and it was putting Joel on edge. Joel sighed again. There was a loud snort beside him. Joel looked up into the face of one of the horses and yelped, scrambling backwards. "Stop doing that!" he snapped at the horse. It snorted at him again.

Trip came up beside the horse, laughing. "Shouldn't you be more comfortable around horses? I thought you were a cowboy?"

"SKY cowboy," said Joel, pointed up. "Not HORSE cowboy."

Trip peered up at the sky, squinting against the sun. Joel cleared his throat pointedly. "Oh, yeah," said Trip, grinning at him and holding up what looked like one of those earphones that hooked over the ear. "I got the translators up and running. I tested it with Dana and Doctor Kato." He held it out and Joel slipped it over his ear. "It'll translate both what they say and what you say, so you should be good now."

Joel grinned, because finally. He started to thank Trip when one of the village kids came running by in a panic. "Monsters!" she cried. "Monsters are coming!"

Trip shared a look with him. "Back to work?" said Joel with a grin. They started running in the direction the girl had come from. Jen, Dana and Samurai Liang came in from the left, joining them in the run. Dana was holding a long staff with a blade at the end of it; Joel was pretty sure it was Liang's naginata.

He was more sure when he saw Liang was holding two swords. Liang grinned and tossed him one. As they neared the edge of the village, Joel saw a group of about twenty warriors with big red helmets waiting, swords out. He came to a stop in a rough line with the other four and he realized, the warriors weren't wearing helmets; they were giant red fish heads full of teeth. He blinked. "What the hell are those?" he asked.

"Moogers," said Liang, drawing his sword. His amulet sparked and green energy started spilling out to cover him. He nodded at Joel. "I'm glad to see your friend Trip has solved our language problem."

Joel drew his sword out of the scabbard. "Think I could get away with talking these guys to death?"

"I know some bad jokes," offered Dana, shifting into a ready stance.

Jen snorted. "Ready, Trip?"

"Your time ends now!" shouted a female voice from Joel's left. A Red Ranger leapt onto the scene, followed by Pink, Yellow, Blue and Green Rangers. The Red Ranger stood up and Joel noticed the skirt; he smiled to himself. She was going to get along great with Jen. Red slid into a ready stance, her team mirroring her. "Now be prepared to face your fate, minions of Xandred."

The Moogers let out a chattering war cry and charged the Rangers. The fight was over in a matter of minutes. When the last Mooger hit the ground, Red turned to Joel and the others and gave a short bow. "Our apologies for our tardiness," she said. "These woods are growing thick with monsters."

Liang bowed back. "I'm glad you're here now, Lady Shiba. Perhaps now, we can truly turn the tide of this battle." He sheathed his sword and the green energy surrounding him was sucked back into his amulet.

Lady Shiba made a gestured and her team demorphed as one. "Then let us pool our resources," she said with a smile.

*

The first thing Eric saw when he opened his eyes was a whole bunch of trees. "There'd better not be any T-Rex's around here," he grumbled, sitting up slowly. He was in some sort of clearing. The trees looked Californian, and there were a lot of bushes scattered around. 

"I don't think we went that far back in time," said Lucas from behind him.

Eric turned to face him and eyed him suspiciously. "But you're sure we actually went back in time?"

"Pretty sure," said Lucas, nodding. "I found a road about five minutes that way," he pointed behind himself, "and I saw a stagecoach go by. I think we're somewhere in the eighteen hundreds."

"Great," muttered Eric, standing up and brushing himself off. At least he wasn't stuck in a loin cloth this time. "Seen anyone else yet?"

"Nope," said Lucas, eyeing the woods around them.

Eric wondered if Wes was okay. There was a loud snap of a twig behind them and they both spun, Eric going for his blaster. The strange slug-like mutant that had shot him and Wes with his freaky fork weapon stepped out into the clearing.

Eric just cleared his blaster from the holster when the mutant blasted them with the fork thing again. Eric shook his head, pushing past the tingling and fired a shot at the mutant, hitting it in the chest.

It stumbled back. "Ignorant worm!" it said with a sneer.

"I wouldn't talk, buddy," said Eric, smirking.

The mutant levelled its fork thing at them again. Eric brought his blaster up and saw Lucas drop into ready stance beside him. There was a kiya and suddenly Chad came flying out of the trees on the right. He kicked his feet into the mutant's side and rolled away under the trident as it swiped it at him. Ryan popped out of the brush behind the mutant, grabbing onto the fork thing. Eric raised his blaster again as Lucas ran forward and grabbed onto the fork thing too. The mutant let out a frustrated snarl and flung them both off.

Eric swore and side stepped, trying to get a clear shot. The mutant raised its trident and charged at Lucas. Chad jumped in front, hands up to grab the weapon and Eric fired several shots at the mutant's legs. It was going so fast that the first few shots went wide, but he got it in the left knee with the last one. It stumbled, but still managed to slash the trident down at Chad. He caught it, but barely, his arms shaking with the effort to keep the trident in place.

Enough was enough. Eric tilted his morpher to him. "Quantum Power!" His suit surged over him and he drew the Quantum Defender as he charged. "Hey, ugly!" he snapped, firing as he ran. He got several solid hits into the mutant's side, forcing it to stagger back. He spun for a kick and the mutant slapped his leg back with the trident. Eric shrugged the sting of pain off and kicked it in the stomach with his other leg.

"Time for Time Force!"

"Titanium Power!"

"Lightspeed Rescue!"

Eric heard Chad and Ryan gasping in shock, but the mutant stabbed at him with the trident and he was busy retreating out of range. "Chrono Sabers!" And Lucas' sabers slapped the mutant's trident into the ground. Lucas punched the mutant in the face and Eric took a second to glance at Chad and Ryan, who were both unmorphed and staring at their morphers, worried. Eric swore quietly. "Yup," agreed Lucas.

"I don't like today," said Eric, tapping the button on the Defender. "Quantum Defender, Sword Mode!"

"I think I like it less than you do," muttered Ryan. He caught the blaster Lucas tossed him and smoothly slide into a firing stance, nailing the mutant in the chest three times in a row.

Lucas tossed his Chrono Sabers to Chad and tapped his morpher. "V2!" His assault cannon materialized in his hands. The mutant took a swing at him and he ducked, rolling out of the way.

Eric caught the return swing with his Defender. He pushed the trident up and away, kicking the mutant in the chest. It snarled and staggered back, right into Chad, who kicked its' knee out and brought the Chrono Sabers down onto the hand holding the trident. He grabbed its shoulder and staggered in surprise when his grip slid off.

The mutant laughed and kicked him. Lucas and Ryan fired at the same time, driving it back into a tree. It staggered up with a snarl. "I don't have time for this nonsense!" It snapped, pointing its trident at them. Before they had time to react a powerful electrical blast shot out, knocking them all down. Eric tried to shake it off and get back up. The mutant snorted and pointed the trident at the ground. There was a bright flash of light and it was gone.

"Well that was fun," said Eric sarcastically. He tapped his morpher. "Power down." Through the red flash of his uniform vanishing, he could see the blue flash of Lucas demorphing.

"Our morphers must have gotten damaged," said Chad, tapping the buttons on it again.

"Or it's a different power source thing?" Eric said, glancing at Lucas for confirmation.

Lucas nodded. "Our morphers were designed to work in the past. Your powers don't have a power source yet."

"In the past?" asked Ryan. He looked around the clearing slowly. "How are we going to get home?"

Lucas and Eric's morphers started crackling with an incoming signal. They glanced at each other and Eric gave Lucas an 'after you' gesture. Out of the five people who could be trying to contact them, Eric has less patience for all of them than Lucas did. Lucas rolled his eyes like he knew exactly why Eric wasn't going to answer. He tapped the comm button on his morpher. "Hello?"

"Lucas!" came the high, cheerful voice of Circuit amidst the loud crackle of static. "I'm s… you're okay! Porti… jam… We're send… elp… be careful!"

"Circuit," said Lucas, giving his morpher a bit of a shake. "What about the others?"

"Only four… sorry, I can't ho…" The signal cut out.

Ryan looked around at the rest of them. "Now what?"

"We should start by finding some kind of civilization," said Eric. "See if we can't figure out where we are. If any other mutants came back with us, chances are good that's where they're going too."

Lucas nodded and held up his morpher. "I'll try to keep contacting Circuit. If he's sending help, they'll find us no matter where we are." He pointed to the right. "I saw a stage coach passing through a few minutes ago."

Eric gestured for him to lead the way and they followed Lucas through the brush until they got to a rough looking dirt road. "Which way?" he asked. Lucas pointed left and they started heading left. Eric took the lead and they started walking. He could hear Lucas and Ryan chatting as they walked, with Chad throwing in the odd comment, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He hated small talk.

*

A strong, cold wind ruffled Carter's hair. He kept his eyes closed, assessing potential damage to his body and listening for possible enemies in the area. He felt okay, disorientated, but not in any pain. He cautiously opened his eyes; the sky looked normal, a deep, cloudless blue, and he couldn't hear anyone nearby. He sat up and gaped as he took in his surroundings.

This looked nothing like the stretch of highway between Mariner Bay and Silver Hills. Carter thought it looked a lot like the Arizona desert, or rather, the rocky parts of it. Huge clumps of rock jutted into the air, lined through with Navajo sandstone. Clumps of desert scrub littered the area and he could hear the sound of running water nearby, which sent a small rush of relief through his system; Carter had a decent supply of iodine tablets on him, so drinking water wouldn't be an issue for a couple of days.

Climbing slowly to his feet, Carter scanned his immediate area more carefully. He spotted a flash of yellow cloth off to the right and scrambled towards it. He made out the camouflage pants and dark vest next. Katie then, not Kelsey. She was laying on her side, facing away from him. Carter stepped around so he could see her face and shook her shoulder gently.

"Katie?" he said. "Are you okay?"

Katie groaned and pushed herself up, looking around blearily. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea," said Carter, shaking his head. His walkie-talkie cackled to life and carter jumped slightly, tugging it off his jacket.

"This is HazRescue 4, does anyone copy?" said Kelsey's voice over the line.

"Copy, HazRescue 4, PyroRescue 1 reads you. I've also got Time Force Yellow with me. Anyone else with you? Over."

"Oh man, am I glad to hear your voice, Pyro," said Kelsey, a smile obvious in her voice. "I've got Time Force Red with me. So far, no other responses. Over."

"Ask them where they are," said Katie as she stood up. She held a hand to her forehead to shade her eyes and started scanning the horizon.

Carter nodded and lifted his walkie talkie to his mouth again. "Glad to hear your voice too, Haz. Do you guys have a fix on your location? Over."

"Nope. Over."

Katie snorted in amusement. "Our morphers have a trackable energy signature. Hang on." She pulled a small hooked earpiece out of her pocket, fitting it over her ear and tapping it. A pair of sunglasses formed onto her face. "Tell Wes to activate his comm."

Carter relayed the instructions over to Kelsey and waited while Katie turned in a slow circle, scanning the horizon. She was about three quarters of the way through when she suddenly stopped and smiled. "Found them! Come on!"

He passed that on too and followed Katie down the narrow, rocky path. After about five minutes, they passed some rather large boulders and Carter spotted some flashes of red and yellow just barely visible over the ridge. He grinned and picked up the pace, walking beside Katie now. "Hey guys!" he shouted, waving when they turned around.

"There you are!" shouted Kelsey as she ran to meet them. She jumped on Carter for a hug, which he happily returned. "We've been trying to get a hold of anyone else," she said into his shoulder before he put her back onto the ground.

"Any luck?" he asked, smiling at Wes when he joined them.

Wes shook his head. "I'm getting some weird feedback on my morpher," he said, holding it up.

"What kind of feedback?" asked Katie, lifting her own morpher up.

Instead of waiting for his response, she tapped a button and her morpher let out a squeal of static before a female mechanical voice started talking. "Viral cushion time, three years, two months, one day, three hours, six minutes and ten seconds. Potential S.A.P.A civilian contact, high. Air contact in five standard minutes. Use-" Katie tapped the button again, cutting the voice off.

She looked up at the rest of them, chewing on her lip slightly. "I know where we are. And when."

"Wait, what do you mean, when?" asked Kelsey, glancing worriedly at Carter.

"We're in the future," said Wes, looking to Katie for confirmation.

She nodded. "In one of Time Force's training eras."

"Time Force has training eras?" Carter said incredulously. "I thought you were based in Silver Hills?"

"Sort of?" said Wes with a sheepish grin.

Katie held up a hand for silence when the sound of multiple jet engines filled the sky. She tensed and edged closer to the shadows from the large rocks nearby. Carter tugged the other two along to follow her lead. He looked up to see three fighter jets streaking through the sky overheard.

Suddenly an energy beam shot up from the ground and smashed through the wing of the leftmost plane, knocking it into the others and sending all three down into a spiralling crash.

"That's not good," said Wes.

"That's not supposed to happen," said Katie, staring at the thick plume of smoke that was slowly rising into the sky.

"Are you sure?" asked Carter. He shrugged when she looked at him. "You can't have a record of every single thing that happens in the whole era, right?"

"Yeah, but this is 2581," she said. "There's nothing on Earth that should be able to produce a weapon like that at this point."

"We should go check it out," said Kelsey. Carter nodded.

Wes looked to Katie first before nodding as well. "Let's go," he said, marching towards the smoke.

**

The walk was longer than expected and Carter paused to wipe at his forehead after an hour of walking. It was harder work traveling over this terrain than he thought it would be. They'd made it about halfway to the crash site, based on the smoke plume. Random sinkholes and landslides made it impossible to go in a straight line.

"Okay," declared Katie, holding up her hands. "Break time."

Wes nodded, pretty much sitting down on the spot. "It seemed closer."

Kelsey sighed and sat down by Carter, leaning on his legs. "I blame cars," she said. At Wes' curious look, she grinned. "When you're used to speeding to an emergency, your time sense gets messed up. Ten minutes in a jeep with a siren is way different from ten minutes on foot in hostile terrain."

Katie laughed softly. "True. Too bad-"

There was a loud grinding noise off to the left, and they all scrambled to their feet.

Wes pointed to a large piles of rocks and they crept up slowly. As they got closer, Carter could hear voices mumbling to each other. Carefully resting his hands on the pile, Carter peeked over, trying to spot the makers of the voices.

"I want to find Master Org, now!" snarled a strange green monster. It looked like some sort of perverted tiki statue. It swung the axe in its hand again, then dragged it across the ground viscously, creating a loud grinding noise.

"Patience, Kired," snapped a blue monster. It looked even stranger than the green one, Kired. It had a bird-like head with a second grotesque face on its torso. "We need to capture one of those strange yellow ships the humans fly."

Carter glanced worriedly at the other three. This wasn't sounding very good.

"Patience, patience, patience," said a yellow monster in a mocking tone. "That's all you ever talk about Rofang. Just once, I'd like to go back to simply destroying humans." This monster looked like some sort of insane child's toy meshed with a tool box. Its one arm was a drill, while it carried a rather large wrench in the other.

From the corner of his eye, Carter saw Kelsey lean back from her perch. And slip. The loud clatter from the dislodged rocks made the monsters look up.

"Humans!" shouted Rofang.

"Shit," said Wes, yanking Kelsey to her feet. "Run."

They ran.

*

Angela glanced at her watch again. Joel was definitely late. Which, alright, was normal, but Carter was driving. The Rangers should have been back by now.

Pulling out her cellphone, she dialled the number to the new Aquabase, tapping her foot impatiently while it rang. There was a click as someone picked up. "Captain Mitchell speaking."

Angela straightened. "Captain. Any word on the Rangers yet?"

"No, I'm afraid not," said Captain Mitchell. "We've been able to locate the Rescue Rover, but we're not getting a response from any of the Rangers, either through the Rover or their morphers."

Angela bit her lip, mentally running through her options. "I'll need to look at the Rover."

"I'll have Lieutenant Thomas pick you up and take you to it. Be careful."

"I will, Captain." Angela nodded.

**

As they were coming up to the halfway point between Silver Hills and Mariner Bay, Angela spotted the Rover, surrounded by five motorcycles. A detail of ten Lightspeed security personnel were surrounding the scene in a loose circle. As she climbed out of the SUV, she mentally ticked off the colours on the bikes to the colours of the Time Force Rangers. The wind screens also matched the patterns on their helmets, at least, according to the photographs she'd seen.

"I think we're missing a bike," she said, pulling out her scanning equipment. Angela paused to take in the scene. Except for a patch of shrubs on the left at the base of the cliff, there was nothing around for miles. There were some scorch marks on the ground, but nothing else.

Lieutenant Thomas shook his head. "We got in contact with the Silver Guardians. The Quantum Ranger drives one of their SUVs; they found his vehicle about half a mile back, signs of a fight that led to this one. Nothing else."

Angela huffed in annoyance and started setting up the scanning equipment. "I'll start with general energy scans. When the rest of the team gets here, we'll start in on the more specific scans. Has anyone tried the Rover's radio yet?"

Thomas nodded. "No response, ma'am. We held off on the Time Force equipment. The bikes have blasters and the buttons are unlabelled."

She nods as she scans the area; the scanner was picking up the remnants of a major energy surge right in front of the Rover and the bikes, which was consistent with the scorch marks. There was a secondary reading from over by the bushes, but it could just be a margin of error. Angela sighed and set down the scanner. "When's the rest of the team getting here?" she asked Thomas.

"Their ETA is about ten minutes."

She nodded and headed over to the Time Force bikes. If they were at all similar to the Lightspeed Cycles, she should be able to get a basic idea of them. Possibly even find a comm link. Either to the Rangers or possibly their HQ. She stepped up beside the Pink one and held out her hands parallel to where the Ranger would be holding onto the bike to drive.

The general start up seemed similar to standard motorcycles, though there was no key slot, only a switch in its place. She scanned over the secondary buttons above it. Logically, the weapons button would be the biggest one, on top. Easy to see and hit one handed. Secondary comm could easily be one of the two buttons sandwiching it. At least one had to be shields and defence.

If a Ranger had to resort to the secondary comm, chances would be good that they wouldn't be driving the bike at the time. They'd be running up to it. Instinct would bring them up on the side they general mounted on. She reached out and tapped the button closest to her. A comm crackled to life, making Thomas jump back in surprise.

Angela chuckled and turned back to the bike. "Hello? Can anyone read me?"

There was a chirping sound. "Jen? Is that you? Where are you guys?"

Angela looked up at Thomas in confusion. It sounded like a little kid. "Hello?" she said.

"...You're not Jen!"

Angela mentally crossed her fingers. She really hoped this person just sounded like a kid. "No, I'm looking for the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers, my team. You're with the Time Force Rangers, right? We can't find any trace of them. Just their bikes and the Rescue Rover."

"Oh, no! Porticon must have thrown them through time! We need to start a search for them right away!"

"Through time?" said Thomas. He rubbed at his forehead and looked at Angela. "How are we going to find them?"

"Can you bring the Vector Cycles back to the clock tower?" asked the kid.

Angela eyed the bikes. Even if they hitched two each to the cars and the Rover, it would be awkward going. "We'll have to get a trailer for the bikes. That'll be at least half an hour."

"Oh, you won't need a trailer!" laughed the kid. "Just bring them to into the clock tower on Michaels." There was a chirping from the communication speaker that sounded like a sign off signal.

"Hey, wait! You-" Angela gaped as the five bikes started glowing. They shrank down until they looked like five toy copies of the bikes.

Thomas bent and picked one up. "Wow," he said.

Angela picked up the three bikes nearest to her and headed for the Rover. "Let's go." She really wanted to meet this kid now.

**

Pushing open the door to Nick of Time Odd Jobs, Angela paused at the small, colourful owl sitting on the counter. She stepped closer to inspect it when it started flapping its wings and shaking its head. "Hi, I'm Circuit," it said in the same voice that they'd heard over the comms. "Thanks for bringing back the Vector Cycles."

"You've got to be kidding me," said Thomas.

Angela looked from him back to Circuit, who was sitting calmly on the counter, blinking at them. She sighed. At least it wasn't a kid. "Do you know how we can find the Rangers?" she asked it.

"Yup!" it said, its wings flapping up and down quickly. "We can use the scanner. It's upstairs!" The owl floated into the air, its wings still flapping, and proceeded to glide over to the stairwell and float up it.

Thomas caught her elbow as she moved to follow. "Are we sure this is a good idea?" he whispered.

Angela sighed again. "What else can we do?"

"But it's a robot owl."

"What were you expecting?" said Angela, raising her eyebrows. "A talking guinea pig that gives out advice like a furry Yoda?"

Thomas blinked. "With all due respect, ma'am. You have a strange mind."

"Hey, where are you guys?" called Circuit.

"Sorry, we're coming." She leads the way up the stairs and takes a moment to look around the open space. It looks cozy and a far cry from the Aquabase quarters. She spotted Circuit on the picnic table by the kitchen and walked up to it. Placing the three Vector Cycles she was carrying down onto the table, she bent to peer at what she assumed was the scanner. It looked sort of like a laptop computer, but like someone had cut out the middle of the screen.

Circuit turned its head in her direction. "I've been trying to get in contact with the Rangers," it said. "But Porticon's jamming most of the signal. I've been able to pinpoint their locations in the time stream, but I don't have a way to get them home yet. So I tried sending a message to someone who can help."

A holographic screen flickered to life over the scanner. Angela could see a young man with dark slicked back hair sitting there. "Circuit," he said. "Where-" He froze when he caught sight of Angela.

She crossed her arms and nodded formally. "Angela Fairweather, Lightspeed Rescue."

The man blinked. "Commander Alex Drake," he said. "Time Force."

"I'm told our two teams got lost in time," she said, raising an eyebrow.

Commander Drake nodded and punched a few buttons in front of him. "That's what I was contacting Circuit about. We need to get them back quickly, before the time stream gets affected."

"So you can get them back?" she asked, leaning in.

"Not exactly," he said, then hesitated. "We have no way of getting a time ship to them. It needs a pilot and there's no one we can send safely."

"What about direct portals?"

He shook his head. "It's possible to use the Q-Rex to open portals, but the Rangers can't walk through them without a vehicle. The temporal currents would tear them apart."

Angela bit her lip, thinking it over. Something was niggling at the back of her mind. "Does it have to be a Time Force vehicle to travel through the portal?"

"A twentieth century car won't work," said Commander Drake. "You'd need something bigger."

Angela grinned, now she remembered. The message had, in fact, said she'd understand on her honeymoon. "What about a Zord Train?"

Commander Drake blinked. "It was my understanding that the Lightspeed Rescue Zords were destroyed in the year two thousand," he said. "You've already rebuilt it?"

"It's half done right now," said Angela, waving a hand dismissively. "But on May twelfth, two thousand? It was working fine."

"But..." Commander Drake stared at her incredulously for a second. "You won't be able to go through the portal to get it."

Angela snorted. "I designed that train. I don't need to go get it, I just need to send a command through to it."

Commander Drake smiled faintly. "That will do. Now all we need is someone to drive it to get the Rangers."

"And that would be me," said Angela nodding. Commander Drake sat up and opened his mouth. She held up her hand and glared. "No. That's my husband out there. And I want him back."

"Alright, alright," said Commander Drake, rubbing his temples. "I'll send an override command to the Q-Rex and you can meet him at the following coordinates to start the mission." The computer bleeped.

"Got 'em!" said Circuit.

"Circuit can open the portals from the Q-Rex's cockpit, and you should be able to communicate with him through the Lightspeed Train's comm unit," said Commander Drake. "Good luck." The screen vanished.

Angela smiled. "Okay. Let's go get our Rangers."

*

"For the record?" said Joel as the Moogers charged at them. He drew his sword. "I've had worse weeks, but not by much." He could see Jen, Kaoru and Liang ready, standing in the centre of the line and just a bit in front of the rest of them and further to the right, Trip and Kotoha, Ryunosuke at the very edge, his bow already drawn.

Chiaki snorted, drew his sword and settled into a battle stance. "We're green," he said. "We can handle it."

"Not if we handle it first," said Mako, holding her fans up. Dana smirked and raised the naginata.

The Moogers reached them and Joel brought his sword up to block a strike. "Is that a bet?" he grunted as he shoved the Mooger back and kicked it in the stomach.

"When have you ever won a bet with me?" asked Dana as she slashed two Moogers across the chest.

Chiaki blocked a strike from a Mooger, ducked a swipe from another one and spun, sweeping the feet out from under the one sneaking up on him. Joel stomped on its stomach as it hit the ground and used it as a springboard to jump and kick another one in the face.

A Wolfblade howled, joined immediately by the other two. "That doesn't get less annoying," said Mako, slicing two Moogers in the face, then spinning and slapping away the sword of a third with her fans.

Joel had half a second to see the brown streak charging towards him and Chiaki before a pink streak smashed into it. The Wolfblade went flying and the pink streak resolved into Jen, holding her Chrono Sabers ready. Joel kicked the knee in of the Mooger that had turned to fire on her and slashed it across the back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw sparks as the white streak collided with a green one. The black streak flew back in a hail of blue arrows. Joel cursed as a fresh wave of Moogers appeared, charging into battle. "Man, I miss my Zord," he muttered, blocking a slash from a Mooger's sword with his own.

"Joel, Dana," said Mako, "Get down." She unsheathes her sword and holds up a pink disk, nodding to Chiaki who holds up a green one. Joel spun, ducking down beside Dana's and letting the Pink and Green Samurai bracket them. Mako and Chiaki slipped the disks onto their swords and spun them. Joel noticed Kotoha and Ryunosuke doing the same on the other side of the battle field.

"Spin Sword! Airway!"

"Spin Sword! Forest Vortex!"

"Spin Sword! Dragon Splash!"

"Spin Sword! Seismic Swing!"

There was an explosion of water, leaves, air and earth and when the light faded, all the Moogers were gone. Two of the Wolfblades were down too, Joel could see the brown and white ones laying on the ground, unconscious. The black one was bouncing between Jen and Trip, almost in two places at once.

Kaoru held up a disk quickly before sliding it onto her sword. "Ready!" she commanded, spinning it.

"Time Strike!" yelled Jen and Trip in unison, slashing at the same time. The Wolfblade howled, getting hit from both attacks at once and crashing to a stop right in front of Kaoru.

"Spin Sword! Blazing Strike!" In one smooth motion she brought her sword down in a rush of fire and turned her back on the monster. The Wolfblade howled again as it exploded.

"Where's Samurai Liang?" asked Dana in the ensuing silence.

"No!" cried a strange voice as Liang came flying back onto the field like he'd been flung. Joel looked up to see a strange guy dressed in bright armour and wearing a painted mask. "I am General Shimazu and you will all bow before me!"

"You will have to make me," snapped Liang, his green energy armour flashing bright as he charged Shimazu. Their sword met with a clang and a shower of sparks. Joel took a second to glance around the battlefield, but other than Shimazu, the only other people standing were on their side. He kept his sword ready, but just watched Liang do his thing.

Liang and Shimazu were pretty evenly matched. They were trading hits and blocks fast and furious. Suddenly, Liang surged forward, scoring several slashes in quick succession. Shimazu stumbled back, yelping in pain. Liang's sword started glowing and he raised it over his head, leaping into the air for a final strike. Shimazu reached out and grabbed the brown Wolfblade at the last second, using it at a shield. It exploded when Liang's strike connected.

When the smoke cleared, both Shimazu and the white Wolfblade were gone.

**

"I'm just saying, we haven't seen Porticon in almost a week," said Joel as he tramped through the brush with Jen. "And now suddenly Trip's getting something?"

Jen nodded, pushing a branch out of the way. "You think he's the reason General Shimazu showed up at all."

"Exactly, so we should have brought Liang along, at least. Or just a couple of the Samurai Rangers."

"They're on stand by," said Jen. "But we can't leave the village unprotected. And we can handle a few Cyclobots."

Off to the left, there was a crash and a yell. Jen's eyes widened. "Trip!" she shouted, running towards the sound. Joel on her heels.

They rushed through a thicket of trees into another clearing where Dana and Trip were facing off against that strange snail mutant that had shot Wes, Eric and Ryan. "Hey!" yelled Joel, trying to distract it.

It didn't even blink as it levelled its pitchfork-thing at Trip and Dana. Jen picked up speed, and slammed into Dana, pushing her out of the way just as it fired. Trip and Jen fell down and the mutant chuckled.

Joel unsheathed his sword and charged at it. "Hey, slug-face, over here!"

The mutant snorted and said, "Oh, don't mind me. I have all I need." It pointed the pitchfork thing and the ground and vanished in a flash of light. Joel staggered through the spot it had been in, cursing under his breath.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Dana. Joel turned to see her checking over Trip and Jen.

Trip nodded. "Yeah, it didn't hurt, it kind of... tingled."

"Who was that guy?" Joel asked, sheathing his sword.

"We don't know," said Jen, standing up and brushing herself off. "We ran into him once before, months ago. There's no record of him in the database of prisoners Ransik brought back with him."

"Or in the databases back home," Trip added. At Jen's glance, he shrugged. "I had Circuit do some checking. Whoever he is, he's either never been arrested or…" Trip hesitated.

"Or what?" said Dana.

"O-or he doesn't exist yet."

"That's not comforting at all," said Joel. He glanced around the clearing. "And no sign of Porticon yet either."

Trip pulled out his scanning gadget and tapped a few buttons. The machine hummed for a few seconds and then stopped. Trip's shoulders slumped. "Actually? I think it was picking up that unknown mutant."

Jen's eyes widened as she got sight of something over Joel's shoulder. "Everyone down!"

They dropped as a hail of blaster fire peppered the air above them. "Or your machine was right," said Dana, rolling to her knees at the edge of the clearing and thrusting her naginata into the bushes. There was a crunch and a shower of sparks.

Joel drew his sword as five Cyclobots charged into the clearing. He slashed two across the chest as Dana got another one in the throat with her weapon.

"Time for Time Force!" shouted Jen and Trip in unison.

A large blast of energy shot out from the trees and slammed into Trip's chest, knocking him into a tree. "Trip!" shouted Jen, drawing her blaster and returning fire.

"You Rangers are so annoying," said Porticon with a snarl. He grabbed the last Cyclobot and threw it at Joel and Dana. Joel rolled to the side to avoid it; Dana swatted its failing limbs with her naginata and dropped into a ready stance.

"If you give up your life of crime, I promise you'll never have to deal with us again," said Jen, keeping her blaster trained on Porticon.

"I've got a better idea," Porticon said, levelling his own weapon at her. "How about I destroy you four right now and then I'll never have to deal with you again?"

Suddenly the wind picked up, followed by a blinding bright light and a crashing noise that had Porticon yelping in pain.

Joel blinked in surprise. His and Dana's morphers chimed. He shared a surprised look with her and tapped the comm button. "Hello?"

*

A few hours later and they had yet to run into anyone or anything. "Are you sure this is the right way?" asked Ryan, for what felt like the millionth time since they started walking down the dirt road. Not that Eric was counting or anything. But one 'are we there yet?' and he was going to use his blaster.

Lucas sighed heavily and started longingly at Eric's blaster. "The stage coach was headed this way, so someone has to be around here," he said.

"Unless it was going away from the town," Chad pointed out, glancing back the way they'd come.

Eric growled. This was not a good day. There was a crash off to their left and Eric froze, hand going for his blaster. He glanced at Lucas and nodded. Lucas bent to grab a large rock and they slowly edged their way into the forest following the sound, Chad and Ryan quietly bringing up the rear.

Another crash sounded through the woods. From a few feet to the left of the original, and they adjusted their progress accordingly. There was another crash from slightly higher up and Eric exchanged a puzzled glance with Lucas. What the hell was going on?

As they got closer, the crashes were picking up in frequency and Eric could hear voices shouting too. Suddenly Lucas held up a hand and they all froze for a second. Then, very carefully, Eric edged up beside him and peered around the tree.

There was a giant robot laying on the ground. It looked familiar, of course it also looked like it escaped from a Godzilla movie, so Eric wasn't going to assume. From the trees and ground around it, Eric figured it had crashed there a couple of days ago. He noticed a couple of mutants were hitting the robot, producing the crashing sounds they'd heard. Porticon was standing on the ground, fiddling with some sort of machine.

"Ha!" shouted on of the mutants. Eric thought he kind of looked an octopus that had half-swallowed a bear. He watched as the mutant smashed its weapon, some kind of shiny club with spikes, into the robot again. "When we're done with you, Zordon won't even be able to use you for scrap!"

Someone touched his shoulder, and Eric looked back to see Ryan gesturing for them to move away from the monsters. Eric nodded and glanced at Lucas. Lucas nodded and repeated Ryan's gesture to Chad, who also nodded. Quietly, they slowly made their way back to the dirt path. Eric slipped his blaster back into the holster and looked at the others.

"Wow," said Lucas. "Zordon?"

"We're definitely somewhere in the eighteen-hundreds," said Chad, looking around the area, as if he was expecting this Zordon to jump out and shout 'boo!'

"Who's Zordon?" asked Eric. The others gave him a blank look and he glared at them. Like it was his fault the rest of the Time Force Rangers never told him anything.

Lucas sighed and shook his head. "Sorry. I keep forgetting you and Wes don't know this kind of thing. Zordon was the guy who created the original Ranger teams of Earth. And the Rangers of at least ten other planets in the galaxy."

"Tommy never told us about Zordon making Rangers on other planets," said Ryan. He wrinkled his forehead. "How do you know that and Eric doesn't know anything?"

Lucas looked at Eric and raised his eyebrows. Eric snorted. "No way. You're the one who's from the year three thousand. You tell them."

**

"No, it's a stupid plan," snapped Eric.

Lucas snorted. "Fine, you come up with a better one."

Eric glared at him. How were they missing the obvious? "We kick these freaks' asses and bring the Godzilla knock-off back to this Zordon. Then we ask him to use his magic Ranger-making powers to get us home."

"That could work," said Ryan.

Eric nodded. "Then let's go." He turned and walked back into the woods. Lucas quickly caught up to him, and he checked over his shoulder to see Ryan and Chad bringing up the rear.

"We should probably morph first," said Lucas.

"Good idea," Eric said, lifting up his morpher. "Quantum Power!"

"Time for Time Force!"

Eric waited while Lucas passed Ryan his blaster and then called out his Chrono Sabers for Chad. Then he nodded in the direction the monsters were. "Let's go." He led the way.

The crashing sounds started getting louder again and Eric slowed his pace. He waved for the others to spread out. He paused as they got to edge of the clearing. There was the octopus bear, by the Zord head. The other mutant looked like someone crossbred a rabbit and a lion. He shook his head, mutants were weird. He couldn't see Porticon anywhere.

He glanced at the others and nodded. As one, they stepped out into the clearing. The mutants didn't notice, too busy trying to bash holes in the Zord. Eric snorted. "Hey, ugly!"

The mutants hesitated then turned around slowly. "Are you talking to us, Earthling?" said the octopus bear one. Maybe not mutants then. Eric decided to dub him Bob.

"I don't see any other ugly freaks around here," said Lucas, hefting his V2.

The rabbit-lion monster snarled. "I'd take that back if I were you." Eric decided he looked like a Carl.

"I'd stop hitting the Zord if I were you," said Ryan, dropping into ready stance, levelling the blaster at them.

Bob and Carl laughed. Bob jumped off the Zord and the two of them swaggered forward. "Are you gonna make us?" said Bob.

"I like that idea," said Chad with a grin.

Eric smirked. "Let's do it." He drew his Defender and started firing. Carl rolled out of the way, cursing when he rolled right into Chad's line of fire. Bob blasted a fireball at Chad.

"Crash!" spat Lucas as he jumped forward and took the hit.

"Sword Mode!" Eric said, charging forward and slashing Bob across the chest as the Defender's sword flipped out. Carl charged him, but Lucas shot him in the shoulder before he got close and then Chad was there, slashing Carl's chest with the sabers.

Ryan rolled out of the way of another fireball and shot Bob in the face. Bob snarled, staggered back and whipped his tentacles across Eric's face. Eric hit the ground hard, grunting. "That is disgusting," Eric said, kicking him in the stomach. Bob kicked him back. Eric blasted Bob with his Defender and Bob stumbled back, falling on his ass.

Lucas blasted Carl back, he stumbled and landed beside Bob.

Eric levelled his Quantum Defender at them. Lucas and Ryan followed suit, while Chad dropped back into ready stance. "Had enough?" asked Eric.

Bob and Carl struggled to their feet. "This isn't over!" declared Bob, pointing at them. "We'll be back!" He dropped something onto the ground that exploded in a cloud of smoke. They were gone before the smoke had completely cleared.

Chad coughed, waving his hand to dispel more of the smoke. Eric holstered his Quantum Defender. "Power Down!"

"Power Down," said Lucas, his weapons vanishing with his suit.

"So, let's get the Dragonzord back to Zordon," said Chad, walking towards the Zord.

"Sounds good," said Eric. They walked up to the Zord, and suddenly one of its eyeballs lit up, projecting a small hologram at their feet. It looked like the head of a bald guy. Eric blinked. "What the hell is that?"

*

Carter ducked behind a large rock, panting. He checked for the other three, Wes was a bit further down by another rock, crouching over Kelsey. Katie was beside him, holding onto a crack in the otherwise smooth surface of the rock they were hiding behind.

"Think we lost them?" he asked her quietly. 

Katie peered over the top of the rock quickly before crouching back down. "I think so?"

"And we're closer to the crash," said Kelsey, easing out from behind the other rock.

Carter looked around and spotted the crash site. He could even see a few parts of the wing. And he could see the body stumbling back into the wing. "Uh, guys?" he said as an evil laugh echoed through the area.

Porticon stepped into view, standing over the body. "It was a good try, kid, but you're no Ranger. My Cyclo-" A Cyclobot head smacked into the back of his head. Porticon startled and turned, snarling. A woman came flying out of the air, wielding a Cyclobot leg like a club.

Carter watched the woman get a few solid hits in before being thrown off. "Maybe we should help," he said. Another Cyclobot head hit Porticon in the face.

"She's doing pretty good," said Katie. Porticon pulled out a large weapon and levelled it at the body on the ground. "Okay, we should help."

"Ready, guys?" said Wes. They nodded.

"Time for Time Force!"

"Lightspeed Rescue!"

Carter blinked in surprise when nothing happened. He looked to Kelsey, who was also staring at her morpher in surprise.

"You have until the count of three," snarled Porticon.

Shaking it off, Carter turned to Wes. "Blasters?" he asked.

Wes nodded. "Good idea." He tossed his blaster to Carter while Katie passed hers to Kelsey. Wes and Katie tapped a button on their morphers in unison. "Chrono Sabers!" Wes gripped his sabers and gestured towards the fight. "Let's go."

"Hey Porticon!" shouted Katie as they ran. Porticon snarled and spun, firing his weapon as he levelled it at them. Carter and Kelsey rolled opposite sides, Carter coming up behind part of a plane body, Kelsey behind a large rock. Wes and Katie had run right through it.

Wes slapped Porticon's weapon down with his sabers. Porticon swatted at him and as Wes danced back, Katie darted forward and slashed him with her sabers.

Kelsey waved to get Carter's attention and then gestured at the body near the fight. Carter nodded and slowly eased up so he could see over the body of the plane. There was another guy fighting three Cyclobots, while the woman was staggering to her feet. He crouched back down and gave Kelsey a three count. On three, he sprang back up and shot two of the Cyclobots in the back.

Porticon roared and charged for him, but Wes and Katie slammed into Porticon from the side, shoving him further away from Kelsey. Kelsey was already moving, hooking her hands under the body's armpits and dragging it back to her cover. Carter fell back, blaster ready, covering her.

Dropping down in front of them, Carter glanced back quickly. "Status?"

"Hang on," said Kelsey with a grunt. Carter watched as the man and woman took down the last Cyclobot. Wes and Katie were alternating strikes against Porticon, making him spin around trying to cover all his weak spots. "Black male," said Kelsey. "He's breathing, no obvious signs of injury. I think he just got knocked out. Man, I miss Dana."

Carter huffed a laugh in agreement. He tensed and brought the blaster up when Porticon suddenly roared.

"I'll be back!" he snarled, throwing Wes and Katie off. Then he tapped something on his belt and vanished.

There was a deep groan behind him and Carter turned to see their rescue blearily blink his eyes open. "Hey!" said Kelsey brightly. "Welcome back to consciousness."

The guy stared at her blankly. "Hi?"

"Scott!" said the woman as she ran up to them, the other man right behind her. "We thought you-"

"-Were finished," said the man. "Are bleeding?"

"How's your head?" the woman asked.

They bustled past Carter like he wasn't even there and started fussing over Scott. Carter handed Wes back his blaster. "Now what?" he asked Wes.

"Aw, crash," mutter Katie, staring at one of the plane bodies. She tapped her morpher. "Power down."

Wes demorphed as he headed over to her, Carter and Kelsey bringing up the rear. "What's wrong?" asked Kelsey, glancing back at Scott and his friends. They had Scott sitting up and were checking him over gently.

"They're Power Rangers," said Katie, pointing to the words 'Eagle Squadron' painted on the side of the plane. "Specifically, Power Rangers that are helping rebuild the Earth and not crashing their planes because of criminal mutants."

"How did you know we were Rangers?" said Scott from right behind them.

"It's not fair," said the woman, "if Alphabet Soup-"

"Had a second Ranger Series in the works," finished the man. "And they told you about us."

"But not us about you," finished the woman with a pout. She and the man both crossed their arms.

Carter blinked and shared a look with Wes before looking at Scott. "We're not from… Alphabet Soup."

"It's a bit complicated," said Katie. "We got flung here from the yeah 2001 by the mutant who attacked you." She turned to Wes. "We have a base not too far from here. We can resupply, contact Circuit, check that Scott's okay and maybe we can even use the scanners to find Porticon."

"Wait, you're from the past, but you have a base here?" asked Scott.

"Well, not all of us started out in the past," said Wes. "I'm Wes, Red Time Force Ranger, this is Katie, Yellow Time Force Ranger. And Carter and Kelsey, Red and Yellow Lightspeed Rescue Rangers."

"Scott," said Scott, nodding. "Ranger Operator Series Red." He gestured to the woman. "Gemma, Ranger Operator Series Silver. And Gem, Ranger Operator Series Gold." Gemma grinned and Gem gave them a little wave.

"I know we just kind of came out of nowhere," said Wes, "but right now, I think we'd be better off sticking together."

Scott looked at Gem and Gemma, who nodded enthusiastically. "Okay," he said. "Lead the way."

*

"This is Angela Fairweather, command code Alpha-Twelve-Zebra-Jay. I know you don't understand what's going on, but trust me. The Rangers need the Rail Rescues. I promise, they will be returned with only minimal damage that they'd acquire in any other battle. Trust me, I know. And Angela? Don't worry, you'll understand on your honeymoon." Angela pressed the button that Circuit had told her to.

The Time Force laptop bleeped and Angela looked up at the Q-Rex. She waved and the time portal at the other end of the beach widened. Thomas pulled her back as the ground began to shake. Then the Rail Rescue train came charging onto the beach. Sand and water arced away from the train's wheels as it slowed to a halt.

Angela took a deep breath. Making sure she had the spare Ranger blaster handle with her, she picked up the Time Force laptop and nodded to Thomas. "I'm going to get our Rangers back. I expect the city to be in one piece when we return."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Thomas, grinning.

She headed into the Rail Rescue train and settled the laptop into Joel's usual seat. Sitting down in Carter's seat, she locked the blaster handle into position. Reaching over, she pressed the second button Circuit showed her and the screen flickered into existence. Angela could see Circuit perched in the Q-Rex's cockpit.

He fluttered his wings. "All ready on my end."

"Okay," said Angela, settling her glasses more firmly on her nose. "Circuit, where do we start?"

"I've got three different locations with Rangers. Two in the past, and one in the future." said Circuit, his wings flapping madly.

Angela tapped her chin, the Rangers in the future were probably the safest. "Let's start with the signal that's furthest into the past and work our way up?"

"Got it! Japan, around three thousand years ago," said Circuit.

Angela blinked. "We'll be able to cover the geographic distance, too?"

"Yeah, that's the easy part."

"Okay, let's go," said Angela, nodding. She smiled to herself as she keyed in the alternate wheel sequence on the control panel. Mitchell had thought she was being paranoid with the train design. Mariner Bay had plenty of train tracks for the Rail Rescues. "Never need an alternative to train tracks, my ass," she muttered. The Rail Rescue shook as the treads slid into place around the train's wheels. Angela looked over at Circuit. "Alright, ready."

"Opening the first portal now!"

The large blue and black portal dilated open in front of them. Angela took a deep breath and set the Rail Rescues into gear. The train started off slow, laboriously moving through the sand, picking up speed. The sunlight faded into a kaleidoscope of colours as they rolled into the portal.

The Rail Rescues suddenly rocketed forward, pushing Angela back into her seat. Angela gripped the controls tightly. The train began to shake.

Angela looked out the front window and noticed a small pin point of light directly ahead of them. It was growing steadily, zooming towards her. Angela flinched as it rushed into her, whiting everything out. There was a flash, then the Rail Rescues bounced and there was some thumping from under the wheels.

She sat up and yanked on the brakes. The train slowly grinding to halt. Angela looked up to see tree trunks and bits of cloth and metal flying away from the front of the train. "Oh, dear," she said. She really hoped that was a bad guy she just ran over.

She ran to the exit door and peered out.

She'd landed in a clearing. Joel, Dana and the Pink and Green Time Force Rangers were standing there, staring up at the Rail Rescues in shock.

Angela jumped down. "Joel!"

Joel stared at her, stunned. Then he grinned. "I am married to the most awesome woman on the PLANET!"

"Are you okay?" she asked, letting Joel sweep her up into a hug. She hugged him back just as tightly, feeling the relief and happiness warm her. 

"I'm great. I think you handled Porticon for us," he said, putting her back on the ground.

"I don't see a body though," said Time Force Pink. She had her hand to the side of her helmet and was scanning the area in front of the Rail Rescues. She turned to Angela. "Where are the others?"

"You were our first stop," said Angela. She gave Joel a curious look. What were their names?

Joel gestured towards the Pink Ranger. "That's Jen," he said. "And that's Trip. Guys, this is our genius, Angela Fairweather. My wife." He grinned.

Jen nodded, then pressed a button on her morpher. "Power down." She looked up at the Rail Rescues. "Do you have scanning equipment in there? We might be able to pin down Porticon now and stop him before he does any more damage."

Angela nodded. "Come on." She gave Joel a quick kiss because she finally could again, and led the way back into the Rail Rescues' engine.

They filed in, Dana automatically taking her seat. Angela sat down in Carter's chair. Joel moved to sit down and paused. "What's that?" he said, pointing at the laptop.

"Circuit!" said Trip, grinning. He bent down, and blinked. "Hey, where are you?"

Circuit's wings flapped. "Hi Trip! I'm in the Q-Rex's cockpit."

Trip gave Jen a surprised look as she came up beside him. "Circuit," she said, with a friendly nod. "Can you read this train's scanners?"

"Yup! But I think the Rail Rescue train managed to smash Porticon's time stabilizer."

Jen crossed her arms, looking worried. "Meaning what exactly?"

"It knocked him back to the year 2001."

Joel snorted and smiled at Angela. "I knew one day you were going to kick someone's ass hard enough that they'd get kicked into the future."

Angela rolled her eyes at him.

"We'd better get the others as quickly as possible then," said Jen, holding up her morpher. "I'll tell Liang we're leaving." She jumped out of the Rail Rescues, morphing with a flash of pink.

"Who?" asked Angela.

"A samurai who was helping us the last few weeks," Dana said.

Angela sat up, looking at Circuit surprise. "A few weeks?"

"It was the closest I could get us to them," said Circuit apologetically.

Jen climbed back into the Rail Rescue. "Okay," she said, sitting down in Kelsey's seat. "We should get going."

Nodding, Angela settled back into her seat. There would be time to find out everything after they got the rest of the Rangers back.

Trip picked up the laptop and was about to settle into the seat when Joel cleared his throat pointedly. "Oh! Sorry!" He sat down in Chad's seat and Joel settled into his. "Where are we heading next, Circuit?"

"The eighteen hundreds!"

Angela shared a nod with Jen. "Let's go," she said, starting up the Rail Rescue again. The portal opened, and Angela drove for its centre. "Hang on, it gets a little bumpy."

Angela increased the speed and the Rail Rescues rocketed back into time. The kaleidoscope of colours whirled around them again. "This is like hitting G-Force in Aero Rescue 3," said Joel, grinning as he clung to his chair.

*

"Well, we can just get into the cockpit and drive it back to Zordon," said Lucas, gesturing towards the torso of the Zord.

Eric eyed the Zord skeptically. "And we're just trusting the talking head about this because?"

"It's Zordon," said Lucas, like that explained everything.

"Right. Are we sure this hunk of junk will even make it that far?" He followed Lucas to the door of the cockpit.

"It's not a hunk of junk," said Ryan defensively. "It's one of the greatest Zords of its time."

"It's time," repeated Lucas, mildly. "Time Force has better Zords."

Eric smirked. "Like the Q-Rex," he said, peering around the inside of the cockpit.

"Exactly," said Lucas, nodding. He sat down in the chair and starting flipping buttons, making the consoles light up. Eric shifted to the side as Chad and Ryan squeezed in. It was a tight fit. Eric noticed a screen at his elbow, it was listing the stats of the Dragon Zord.

Ryan looked at Eric curiously, "Your Q-Rex is really better than Tommy's Zord?"

"Yup," said Eric, smirking. "Mine's bigger too."

Lucas starting moving the controls and Eric braced himself as the DragonZord got clumsily to its feet. It started forward at a slow, staggering pace. Lucas grumbled and pressed a few more buttons. "Come on," he said. "Any slower and we'll get there by 2001."

Eric snorted. There was an explosion and he fell back into Ryan. "What the hell?"

"There!" said Chad, pointing. Two space ships were circling the DragonZord.

There was a radio crackle. "I told you we'd be back!" said Bob, cackling. An annoyed sigh came over the line and the sound of something heavy hitting something else with a clang. "Out of the way, you moron," came Porticon's voice. "Rangers, prepare to die. I will not have you ruining my plans."

Eric sighed. Great, like this could get any worse. "Please tell me this thing comes with weapons."

"Yup," said Lucas, pressing a button. The DragonZord's arms came up and shot missiles out of it's fingers at the two ships. One of the ships took a glancing hit, while the other swerved and blasted at the Dragonzord again. Lucas swore, struggling with the controls as the Dragonzord staggered wildly. "Egg sucking sons of..."

Clinging to Lucas' seat, Eric muttered, "Anything else?"

Lucas flipped a switch and the Dragonzord spun around. A display lit up, showing a back view of the tail whipping towards the space ships. It missed one, but managed to send the other sailing back, sparking slightly. Eric resisted the urge to rub the bridge of his nose. This could take a while.

"Okay," he said as the Dragonzord faced the ships again. "New plan. Chad or Ryan, one of you drive this thing. Lucas and I are gonna morph and ride outside. Between the V-2 weapon and the Quantum Defender, we might actually be able to do some damage to those things."

Chad and Ryan looked at each other. Chad raised his eyebrows, Ryan shrugged. "I'm driving," said Chad.

"Hang on," said Lucas. He pressed the missile button again, driving the ships back. "Now we just need a way for you two to warn us when you use the Dragonzord weapons."

Chad held out a walkie-talkie to Eric. "Got it covered."

"Chad," said Lucas. He jumped up onto the arm rests quickly, hopping over the back as Chad slid under and settled into the seat.

Chad gripped the controls and nodded. Eric shared a grin with Lucas.

"Time for Time Force!"

"Quantum Power!"

Eric and Lucas climbed onto the top of the Dragonzord. Suddenly it reared back, roaring. They clung to the fin on its head. Eric gripped the radio. "What the hell was that?" He glared at the Zord; stupid Godzilla knock-off.

"We don't know!" said Ryan. "Chad was trying to make it move faster."

Eric grumbled and pulled his Quantum Defender. He took aim at one of the ships and fired. It veered away from the Dragonzord.

"V-2!" Lucas fired on the other ship, hitting it's wing. The ship wobbled dangerously but kept coming. Eric aimed and hit the nose of the ship; it circled back, coming in for another pass.

The radio crackled. "We're going for a tail swipe, hang on!"

"Lucas, we're spinning!" Eric gripped the Dragonzord's fin. Lucas grabbing on just above him.

The world spun and Dragonzord's tail lashed out, knocking the in-coming ship off its course. They kept spinning and the Dragonzord's arms came up, launching missiles at the ships. The ships fired back, obliterating most of the missiles before they hit target. One scored a hit along the bottom of one of the ships, making it smoke slightly.

This was taking too long. Eric held the radio up. "Go for another tail hit, I have an idea."

"Eric, what-" He tossed the radio to Lucas, Ryan's voice getting lost in the wind.

The Dragonzord started to spin. Eric let go of the fin and started running down the back of the Zord. He thought he heard Lucas yelling, but ignored it. He pull his complete focus on not losing his footing. He shoved his blaster into the holster, using his hands to stay on the tail as it arced up.

Almost there.

The tail lashed towards the ships. Eric hit the end of the tail and jumped. He ripped his Quantum Defender out of the holster as he flew towards the ships. "Quantum Defender Sword Mode! Max Blizzard!"

The blade glowed blue as he slashed through the nearest ship. The entire cockpit slid off like it was greased. Eric landed on the back part of the ship and kept running. Catapulting off the wing, he sailed towards the second ship. "Max Blizzard!"

He sliced the wing off the second one. Running along the cab, he leapt for the Dragonzord. Energy blasts chased after him and smoke clouded his vision. "Eric!" shouted Lucas, snatching his wrist. Lucas yanked him onto the Dragonzord. His other arm was propping the V-Weapon on Dragonzord's fin, firing at the falling ships.

Eric watched the ships crash and burn. He chuckled. He turned to see Lucas still staring at him; he could feel the glare through the helmets. "What?"

Lucas shook his head. "You're crazy."

"It worked," said Eric, smirking.

The radio crackled. "If you guys are done being insane, you want to come back inside so we can get this thing back to Zordon?"

Eric rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

They climbed back down into the cockpit. Chad turned in the seat. "You want to take over?" he asked Lucas. Lucas nodded and this time Chad was the one who hopped onto the seat's arms and over the back while Lucas slipped in.

Lucas eyed the controls. "What did you press that made it roar?" Chad pointed. "Icy," said Lucas, a smirk in his voice. "Hang on."

Lucas pushed the button Chad had pointed to, then another two in quick succession. Eric grabbed onto the back of the seat as the Dragonzord reared back, roaring. Then it started charging forward in a bone jarring run. Eric gritted his teeth. "This had better be worth it."

Something started beeping. Lucas looked over. "We're coming up on the coordinates Zordon gave us."

"Think he'd mind if I puked in his Zord?" asked Ryan through clenched teeth.

Chad paled a bit. "Please don't?"

"Woah!" Lucas pulled a lever and the Dragonzord came to an abrupt halt. Eric barely kept himself from pitching over the seat. "We're here!"

"Good!" said Ryan, spinning and climbing out of the cockpit. The rest of them followed a bit more slowly. Eric looked around as he jumped down. It looked like an empty cliff in the desert.

"Ai yi yi!"

Eric turned around to see the strangest robot ever walking out of a hidden doorway in the cliffside. He blinked. "What the hell?"

"Thank you, Power Rangers! Zordon and I are grateful for your help."

Eric looked at Lucas. "Power Down," they said in unison. The wind picked up as Eric looked back at the robot. "Who are you?"

*

Carter eyed the cliff Katie was leading them towards. It looked weird, almost shimmery. Gem gasped in surprise and Carter looked to see Katie picking up a really large rock that was in the way and setting it aside like it weighed nothing.

Gemma stared at her in awe. "How…?"

Katie smirked. "Super strength."

"Cool," said Kelsey.

"That cliff looks weird," said Scott. 

Katie turned back and grinned at them. "That's the Time Force base alright." Now that she said it, Carter could see the more manufactured lines of the building. It was a shade of yellow that almost completely blended with the tan rocks surrounding it.

"So let's go!" said Kelsey, she started jogging towards the cliffs.

"Hey!" Katie ran to catch up. "I thought it was Red Rangers that were supposed to be crazy."

Wes laughed as he started jogging. "I heard that!"

Carter shook his head, grinning. He ran after the others. Scott, Gem and Gemma bringing up the rear.

It took them about five minutes of running before they were looking up at the cliffside. Wes leaned against a rock, panting lightly. "Now how do we get in?"

Katie grinned. "It's the iciest thing." She walked up to a small hole and stuck her finger inside. There was a beeping sound and a strange little lizard popped out. It was the exact same shade as the rocks, and Carter was almost sure that it was made of the rock itself. Katie leaned down to its eye level. "Officer Katherine Walker, Time Force Division 29, Special Weapons."

The rock lizard gave a croak and retreated back into the cliffside. There was a sound of grinding gears and a part of the cliff face faded away to reveal a staircase.

"Awesome!" said Gem and Gemma in unison.

Katie led the way up the stairs into a large, airy room. There was a large bay window on the opposite wall. Carter could see a kind of helicopter landing pad outside. There were cupboards and computer consoles scattered around the room. Five doorways were dotted around the room. Carter peered curiously into the two open doorways near the stairs. They were bedrooms much like the ones his team had at the Aquabase.

"Here," said Wes, making Carter jump a bit in surprise. He was holding out a container. Carter took it, it was cylindrical, red and made a sloshing sound when he shook it. Wes smiled and said, "Katie says it's water."

"That's because it is water," said Katie, giving Wes an exasperated look. Then she held up a shiny silver packet before tossing it to Carter. "And that's food."

Carter noticed the opening on the water container and took a sip. He wrinkled his nose. The water tasted off. Like water, but not.

"This tastes weird," said Kelsey, eyeing her water container.

Wes grinned at Katie. "See, I told you."

Katie stuck her tongue out at him. She pointed towards one of the far doors. "Med bay's through there. Think you can work the scanner on Scott?"

"Is it like the one we have at home?" asked Wes. She nodded. "Okay, come on, buddy." Wes clapped Scott on the shoulder and tugged him towards the med bay.

Katie pointed to the other far door. "There's showers and a bathroom through there. Drop your clothes into the blue box and they'll be clean by the time you're done a shower."

"Oh cool," said Gem, grinning at Gemma.

"We're gonna try that out," Gemma said.

Kelsey dropped down into a chair by one of the computer consoles and grinned at Carter while she opened her foil packet of food. "Think we could recruit those two into the Junior Ranger program? Heather would love them."

Carter snorted. He turned to Katie. "Need any help?"

She shook her head as she sat down at one of the other computer terminals. "I'm going to set up a search pattern for Porticon and then send a message to Circuit."

Nodding, Carter glanced towards the showers and decided to wait it out. He sat down beside Katie, taking another sip of the weird tasting water before opening his food packet. He let himself zone out a bit, only half listening to the bleeps Katie's computer made.

"Why is it re-routing…" muttered Katie. The computer cheeped and up popped an image of a guy who looked almost exactly like Wes. Katie sat up in shock. "Alex?" Carter sat up, tensing at her surprise.

"Katie," said Alex. Carter shared a surprised look with Kelsey, who came up behind them, the guy even sounded just like Wes. "Sorry to reroute you, but given the era you were in, we needed a more secure channel for you."

"What's going on?" she asked.

Alex sighed. "We've found the rest of your teams, and we're sending someone to get you. But we won't be able to get them to you until tomorrow, your time."

Katie narrowed her eyes, watching him carefully. "There's more to this that you can't tell us, isn't there?"

"Just, be careful. Try not to leave too much evidence of being at the base and try to keep everyone with you alive." He gave her a meaningful look. "They're all very important."

"Yes sir," said Katie, nodding slowly. She sat back as the picture vanished and the computer cheeped again. She smiled at Kelsey and Carter and stood up. "Come on, I'll show you guys the bunks."

**

Carter woke up to his mattress bouncing. He opened his eyes to Kelsey grinning at him. He smiled back cheerfully and shoved her off the bed with his knee. He laughed at the indignant squawk she made as she tumbled off the bed. She sat up, stuck her tongue out at him and whacked him gently on the head with several foil packets of food before heading out the door.

There was a groan from the bunk above his. Wes blearily peered over the edge as Carter stood up. "Wha?" he mumbled, yawning.

"Breakfast," said Carter, handing Wes one of the packets. "Time to get up, guys."

Scott sat up with a wince, taking his breakfast from Carter. Gem flung the covers back, rolled off his bunk and popped to his feet with a slight bounce. "Morning!" he grinned, taking his packet.

They were all up and out of the room in a matter of minutes, beds neatly made behind them.

Gemma was staring out the windows, bouncing slightly on her toes, and talking animatedly with Kelsey. Katie was just coming out of the bathrooms. She smiled at them.

Two of the consoles suddenly started beeping urgently. Katie stepped up to the one closest to her and punched a couple of buttons. "Crash. I found the monsters."

"Where?" asked Wes, peering over her shoulder. Carter glanced over at the still beeping console before coming to look himself.

Katie punched another button. "They're about five miles east of here. I, hang on, it looks like they have some kind of machine."

"Probably the one they shot us down with," said Scott.

"Is that why the other computer is still beeping?' asked Kelsey as she pointed at it.

"What?" Katie looked over and her eyes widened in horror. She darted over to the other console and punched a couple of buttons there. "Rotten eggs!" She spun around. "We have to get out of here, now!"

"Why?" asked Carter, as Katie pushed him towards the door by the food cupboard.

"We're coming."

Wes grabbed Katie's arm. "Wait. What? You mean Time Force? Because, that's a-"

"I mean us," said Katie, staring at Wes hard. "You, me, Jen... People we can't meet."

"Wait, what?" Scott said.

Wes blinked then nodded. "And Porticon's after that time ship. We need weapons."

Katie turned and ran to a different cupboard. She pulled it open and grabbed five blasters that Carter has seen the Time Force Rangers use before. She started passing them out.

"Wow," said Kelsey, stepping closer to the window. Carter followed her gaze and he stared in amazement. A large black portal ringed with blue dilated open in the sky and a strange yellow ship flew out. It looked almost like a lightbulb to Carter. He took another step closer to get a better look.

"Come on!" said Katie, grabbing both Carter and Kelsey and dragging them through the door. They entered a kind of meeting room, with a table and chairs in the centre of the room. Katie walked around it quickly, going for the window. She let go of Carter and pressed a button on the window frame.

The glass slide back into the wall with a soft thunk. Wes hopped over the sill first and he glanced over the balcony railing. "Hurry," he said. "We can hide under the balcony."

Kelsey and Carter climbed out the window as Wes hopped over the railing. Once, Gem, Gemma and Scott were clear, Katie pressed the button on the window again and jumped through as the glass slid shut. Carter helped Kelsey over the railing and then he and Katie climbed over together.

Under the balcony was a bit of a shallow cave. The seven of them scrambled under as Carter heard engines powering down. Carter slipped and almost fell. Wes grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. They stayed there, breathing as quietly as they could.

Carter was just starting to wonder if they should make a break for it, when he heard the window open. He tensed as someone started walking over to the railing of the balcony.

"Eric!" called Wes from the window. The footsteps stopped. Carter blinked. He knew Katie had said it was the Time Force Rangers that were coming, but he still looked to make sure Wes was beside him. Wes was sitting there, barely moving. A part of him wondered if it was that Alex guy.

"What is it, Wes?" Eric's voice sounded like it was almost directly above them.

There was a chuckle from the other Wes. "You've gotta come pick a bunk. Trip's making Lucas wait for you."

"Like it matters," said Eric. "They're too small to share, I'll just grab whatever one you guys don't want."

Carter blinked, and flinched as Wes' grip on his shoulder tightened.

"So, I can just tell them that my boyfriend's sulking because we can't share?" said Wes with a teasing tone.

Wes was gay? Carter looked at him curiously, but Wes wasn't paying attention. He was staring up at the balcony with a look that seemed to be part confusion, part hurt - like he's been shot.

"Oh for crying-" Eric sighed in annoyance that the footsteps moved back to the window.

There was a soft thunk and Carter couldn't hear anything else.

Kelsey started to say something, but Katie shushed her. They waited quietly for a few minutes, then Wes loosened his hold on Carter's shoulder and crawled out. He turned to the others, he still looked conflicted. "Let's go."

"Wes," said Katie. "You and-"

"Not now," said Wes shortly, his expression closing off.

Kelsey eased herself out. Carter followed. "But Wes," he said.

"We've got monsters to stop," said Wes, helping Katie out. He turned and started making his way to the edge of the cliff. Carter looked at Katie worriedly. She gave him an apologetic shrug as she helped Scott out from under the balcony.

"How are we going to manage that?" asked Kelsey, steadying Gem and Gemma as they came out.

Katie grinned. "I've got an idea." She jogged up to catch up to Wes, the rest of them following behind. "If we can get control of Porticon's machine, we should be able to take him out."

"And then we could blow it up," said Gem brightly.

"Kaboom!" Gemma said in agreement.

Carter resisted the urge to edge away from their enthusiasm over the idea. "That sounds like a good plan. Can you two control the machine."

They both nodded. "As long as it's-" said Gemma.

"Not DNA encoded," finished Gem. "But we could work around that too."

"So we distract Porticon and the monsters, and Gem and Gemma come from behind and get control of the machine," said Wes.

"It's a good plan," said Kelsey, grinning.

*

Angela saw the pinhole of light again. "Brace yourselves, we're almost there," she said.

The light rushed to meet them. There was a flash and a heavy thump. Angela looked up to see waves of sand arcing up around them. "We're here," she said.

"Did we run anything over this time?" asked Joel.

"Let's hope not," said Jen, pointing out the front window. "That's Zordon's Dragonzord."

Dana made it to the door first. She peered out and her face lit up. "Ryan!"

Angela followed her out. Ryan was swinging his sister into a hug. Chad was grinning at the scene. As she watched the Time Force Blue Ranger and the Quantum Ranger demorphed. There was a strange little robot standing beside them.

"Ai yi yi!" it said, bouncing a bit in place. "More Rangers!"

"Lucas!" shouted Trip as he ran down to the group, running up to the Blue Ranger.

"Wow," said Chad, staring up at the Rail Rescues. Then he noticed Angela. He blinked and grinned. "Joel was taking too long?"

Angela laughed. "Something like that."

"We need to go," said Jen. "We're still missing four Rangers."

The Quantum Ranger looked up sharply at that, his eyes scanning over everyone. Then he met Jen's eyes. "So, let's go then." He stalked past everyone, straight into Rail Rescue One.

Angela raised an eyebrow at Jen, who rolled her eyes. "That's Eric," she said, as if that explained everything.

Lucas had turned to the robot. "Tell Zordon we're glad we could help. And it looks like we won't need his help after all."

"Thank you again, Rangers," said the robot.

Angela turned to take back her seat and noticed Eric standing in front of the laptop, glaring at it. "Something wrong?" she asked dryly.

"Yeah." Eric pointed at the screen and looked over at her. "What the hell is that bird doing in my Zord?"

Angela blinked. "He's the only one who can generate the portals we need to get you home."

"Through the Q-Rex?" asked Lucas, sounding impressed. He smirked at Eric. "Dragonzord can't do that."

Eric snorted.

Angela shot a questioning look at Chad. He rolled his eyes. She shook her head and sat down. As the rest of the Rangers filed in, she looked over at Circuit. "Okay, where to next?"

*

They were about five minutes away from Porticon's location now. Apparently, he'd set up base on one of the lower cliffs. Carter watched Gem and Gemma disappear around the bend, after reassuring everyone that they'd have no problems scaling the cliff on their own.

There was a crunch of gravel behind them and Carter spun. It was the mutant with that had shot Wes, Eric and Ryan back in 2001.

"You!" said Katie with a snarl.

Carter reached for his blaster, but the mutant blasted her and Carter with its weapon before he could bring up the blaster. He braced for pain, but was surprised that it only tingled a bit.

"Hey!" snapped Kelsey, blaster up. Wes was in a ready stance beside her. She fired at the mutant, making him roll to the side.

The mutant chuckled and blasted them with its weapon, making them stumble back.

"Back off!" shouted Scott, charging toward the mutant and leaping into the air to kick him in the face.

It glanced at Scott and pointed its weapon at the ground. There was a flash and it disappeared.

Scott staggered as he landed in the empty spot where the mutant had been. "Damn it."

Carter turned his attention to Kelsey and Wes. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah," said Wes. "It just tingles when he does that." He started leading the way towards the cliff again.

"Who was that?" asked Scott.

Katie sighed, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "We're working on that one. He's technically a different case."

"And if he comes back?" said Kelsey, putting her blaster away.

"We'll deal with it then," Carter said. "We need to deal with Porticon first."

"Piece of cake," said Kelsey, eyeing the cliff face in front of them.

Katie stared upwards. "What if we slip?"

Carter caught the bottom seam of his jacket and started pulling the climbing ropes out of it. Kelsey grinned and started doing the same thing. "We'll use these," said Carter. "I'll go up first, then Wes, then Scott, then Katie and Kelsey last."

"Why is Kelsey last?" asked Wes, taking the end of rope that Carter handed him. "She's lightest, if she falls, she'll be the easiest to catch."

"She's also the expert," said Carter. "If something happens, she can adapt the fastest. Katie's strong, so she could catch us if we fell. And I've been trained in mountain rescue. I'm not as good as Kelsey, but I know what I'm doing."

Wes grinned, "So you're sticking me and Scott where we can do the least amount of damage?"

Carter felt his face heat up, "Well, yeah."

"Good thing I don't really know what I'm doing then," said Scott wryly.

Katie snorted. She grabbed Wes' arm and yanked him over to her. Between the two of them, they linked the two ropes together, tying Scott into it firmly before attaching themselves to it.

Carter took a deep breath and looked up at the cliff, trying to spot a good starting point as he attached the rope to his waist. "Ready?"

"Did you hear that?" asked Katie, looking around.

Carter blinked and shared a confused look with Wes. "No."

"What is it?" Kelsey tilted her head.

Katie shook her head absently, still staring around. "Probably nothing. We should get going."

Carter scanned around the area quickly, then he nodded. He turned to the cliff face, spotted a good hand hold and started climbing. It was slow going. The hand and foot holds were small and the sun was glaring down on them, making it hard for Carter to spot grips.

He was about halfway up the cliff when he heard an echoing laughter. His heart skipped a beat.

"Shit," said Wes softly.

Carter shifted his weight and glanced down. The three monsters were at the base of the cliff, staring up at them. Running every swear he knew through his head, Carter looked up and hooked his fingers into the next grip. Squinting hard against the sun, he picked up the pace. "Come on, guys," he said. "Faster."

He made it up another half-foot where he heard the explosion. Katie let out a shriek. Carter felt his stomach drop and he gritted his teeth. He tried to speed up even more, grabbing at hand holds without checking them. An energy blast smashed into the rock face inches from Carter's face. He suppressed the flinch and forced himself to keep moving.

An explosion boomed just below Carter. "Fuck," snapped Scott. "Any ideas?"

"I've got one," said Kelsey. "Katie, can you carry me and still climb?"

"Sure," said Katie, panting.

Carter risked a quick glance down, just in time to see Kelsey let go of the cliff and pull out her blaster. He grinned and kept climbing. Crazy as always, but it might just get them out of this in one piece. The explosions kept coming, and Carter tried to ignore them. He focused on the sound of Kelsey's return fire and the nearness of the top of the cliff.

He was reaching for the edge of the cliff when Katie shrieked. "Kelsey!"

Heart in his throat, Carter scrambled onto the cliff. He spun and pulled his blaster. Carter leaned over the edge just in time to see Kelsey grab onto the cliff a few feet down from where she should be. The rope around Katie's waist was flapping in the breeze.

One of the monsters took aim. Carter shot it in the face. "Guys, get up here!"

Carter kept firing at the monsters, trying to keep them distracted. Shots to the torso weren't even phasing them, so he started aiming for their heads and joints. Wes scrambled up beside him. Scott slipped as he tried to pull himself onto the cliff. Carter grabbed his belt with one hand and yanked him up onto the ground.

"Kelsey, come on!" shouted Katie, scrambling up the cliff. She slipped and Scott threw his weight back, gripping the rope with both hands. Kelsey was clinging to the cliff with one hand and firing at the monsters with the others. Carter tried to breath past the lump in his throat and kept squeezing the trigger.

Wes pulled Katie up onto the cliff and Scott pulled out his blaster. Katie moved to Carter's other side, peering down. Carter leaned over the cliff's edge. "They're up!"

Kelsey stuck her blaster in her mouth and started swarming up the cliff. Carter handed his blaster to Katie and lay down, ready to pull Kelsey up. Kelsey seemed to almost flow up the side of the cliff, flinching and swerving around energy blasts.

"Come on, come on," whispered Carter, holding his hands out. "Almost there..."

Kelsey was a foot from the top when an energy blast smashed into the hand hold she was going for. She looked up at Carter, and winked. Tensing, she pushed up off the cliff, throwing herself into the air. She stretched her arms out for Carter's. He reached desperately, and for half a second, he thought he was going to miss her.

He snatched her wrist and pulled hard. Dragging her up as she used her feet to push herself up. Carter pulled her in, rolling back and hugging her close. He lay there for a second, panting. then he looked at Kelsey. "Before you ask, no, we're not doing that again."

Kelsey pulled her blaster out of her mouth and grinned.

"Guys, one of the monsters just vanished," said Wes.

Carter glanced back at Wes then moved to get up. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head to look. He froze. "I found it."

It was the green one, Kired. It raised its club and grinned. "Leaving so soon, humans?"

Carter looked at Kelsey and nodded. She nodded back. In one fluid motion, she flipped off of Carter and started firing her blaster.

Kired raised his club and brought it down on the ground. The crack it made flew towards them. Carter grabbed Wes and rolled right. Kelsey doing the same for Katie and Scott in the opposite direction.

Wes continued the roll until he was on his feet.

"Time for Time Force!"

There was a scrabbling noise from the cliff's edge. Carter spun, catching the blaster Katie threw him and firing at the yellow monster climbing up. It fell back, cursing.

"Takach!" shouted Kired. "Filthy humans!" It picked up a large boulder and threw it at Carter and Wes.

"Time for Time Force!" shouted Katie. She charged forward, slamming her shoulder into the boulder. For a half-second, neither moved. Then Katie was walking forward, driving the boulder back. She reached up, gripping it with both hands and spun, throwing it back at Kired.

Kired stumbled back, falling to the ground. Wes pulled his blaster and levelled it at Kired.

"Where's the machine?" asked Wes.

Katie tapped the side of her helmet, then pointed to the north. "Half a mile that way."

Wes nodded. "Carter, you, Scott and Kelsey take point. Katie and I will keep the monsters distracted. Keep an eye out for Porticon."

Keeping his blaster aimed at the cliff's edge, Carter glanced at Wes. "Right."

Scott started running for the machine, Kelsey and Carter at his heels. There was a roar from over the cliff's edge and the blue monster, Rofang, leapt into the air, energy blasting from the second face in its torso. Carter rolled out of the way.

"Chrono Sabers!" Wes swung the blades, knocking of Rofang's blasts back at it. Rofang yelped and hit the ground hard.

Kired roared and charged at them. Takach surged up over the cliff's edge, snarling. Katie stepped into Kired's charge and smashed her fist into his face. The ground under his feet buckled a bit. Takach clipped her in the side, sending her spinning.

"Down," muttered Scott. Carter ducked. Kelsey skidded up beside him. As one, they opened fired on Takach, making him stagger back. Rofag and Wes came tumbling into the line of fire and Carter barely pulled his blaster up in time.

Looking around, Carter spotted a couple of boulders and grinned. Post-apocalyptic eras at least had handy barricades like this. "Guys," he shouted to Scott and Kelsey. "Follow me." He scrambled to his feet and made for the boulders. Energy blasts shot over their heads. Carter fired his blaster over his shoulder, then slid down behind one of the boulders, Kelsey right beside him.

Scott pressed his back to one of the other boulders, spinning and firing at the monsters. "Well, this is fun," he said dryly. "Any ideas?"

"How about staying alive?" Carter flinched as a blast hit his boulder and showered him with dust. He leaned out low and shot Rofang in the knee.

Kired roared and came hurtling over Scott's boulder. "Time Strike!" shouted Wes. He was suddenly a flash of red right behind Kired, smashing his Chrono Sabers onto the mutant's legs. He kept moving, flipping Kired over, and ripped the sabers down, making him spin and smash into the ground.

Carter's radio crackled. "Red, can you hear me?"

He stood up and shot Rofang in the face before ducking back down. Grabbing the radio, Carter said, "I hear you, Silver. Situation report?"

"We're almost done," said Gemma. "Any time you guys want to get them moving."

Carter glanced at Wes, who gave him a thumbs up. "On our way, Silver. Red, out."

Takach roared, leaping over the boulder. Carter had time to see a yellow gloved hand grab his foot and suddenly Takach was yanked backwards. He let out a squeal as Katie spun him and smashed him into the ground.

"Un-morphed Rangers first," said Wes. There was a barrage of energy blasts and they all ducked down behind the boulders. "V-1!" Wes gripped his new weapon and started blasting at the monsters. "Carter, go! We're right behind you!"

"V4!" shouted Katie and the sounds of blaster fire increased.

Carter ran for it, heading north. Within seconds, Kelsey and Scott were beside him. They ducked down as the monsters shot at them again. Carter spotted a flash of silver up ahead. "There it is!" He picked up his pace. Almost there.

His radio crackled. "Red, get out of the way. Now!"

Carter rolled out of the way to the left as an energy beam raced towards them. Kelsey tumbled on top of him and Wes landed right beside him. He could see Scott and Katie land on the ground on the right. The beam hit the monsters square on, stopping them in their tracks. Rofang took a step forward, moving as if through thick molasses. Carter wasn't sure, but the monsters looked paler, like something was leeching the colour from them.

He pulled his radio out. "It's working, whatever it is, but they're fighting it. Can you turn it up?"

"Working on it," said Gem.

The energy beam brightened and the monsters cried out. They stopped moving and slowly the colours bled out of them. They looked like stone statues now. There was an explosion and Kelsey yelped. Carter was on his feet and running before he knew it.

Porticon was standing over a mangled machine, pointing something at Gem and Gemma who were still on the ground.

"Hey!" shouted Katie.

Porticon spun and Katie fired immediately. The blast hit the front of his suit, setting off a shower of sparks. Porticon snarled and vanished.

He reached Gemma as she was picking herself up off the ground. "What happened?" he asked, staring at the pile of smoking machinery beside her.

"Porticon shot it," said Gem, as Wes pulled him to his feet. "Not exactly-"

"The boom we were hoping for," finished Gemma.

Wes glanced back at the new monster statues. "What about them?"

"Oh, that was the fun thing," said Gemma with a grin. "The machine needs to draw energy from the earth to shoot things."

"So we flipped it," Gem said. "It drew energy from them to go boom!"

"How long are they stuck like that?" asked Kelsey.

"My guess? At least a few centuries," said Katie, a smirk in her voice.

Kelsey nodded. "Good."

The wind picked up suddenly. Carter looked up curiously and his mouth dropped open.

"Now what?" asked Katie.

*

"We're going where?" asked Lucas.

"Twenty sixth century, SAPA 2581," said Circuit.

Trip blinked. "Time Force's training era?"

Angela turned to look at him, not sure she heard that right. "You have a training era?"

"Yes," said Jen. "And we should get them out of there now." She nodded to Circuit. "Circuit."

"Right! Opening the portal!"

Angela started the Rail Rescues forward. "Everyone hang on!"

"It gets a little bumpy," said Joel dryly.

Dana giggled and grinned at Ryan and Chad. "Just a little."

Angela rolled her eyes as the Rail Rescues entered the portal. She worked with comedians, didn't she? The kaleidoscope lights strobed around as the train began rattling from the speed. She found herself looking for the pinhole of light. There it was. She grinned.

The light rushed at them, whiting everything out. There was a thump and a crash. Then the squeal of metal grinding against metal. Angela winced as she pulled hard on the brakes.

"We hit something," said Trip.

"What are the odds of you hitting more than one evil mutant with a train?" mused Joel.

Jen sighed and headed for the door. "Come on."

The rest of them followed Jen. Angela looked around and found herself a bit disappointed. She'd been hoping the future would look more futuristic. It looked like a standard desert, the kind you saw in any post-apocalyptic movie. She'd have thought reality would have been better.

"No jetpacks?" muttered Joel.

"Katie! Wes!" shouted Trip, rushing forward and hugging the Red and Yellow Time Force Rangers just as they demorphed. The rest of the Time Force Rangers circled around them, though Eric stayed back a bit. He was busy suspiciously eyeing the three strangers staring at the Rail Rescues in awe.

Then she spotted Carter and Kelsey. Dana made it to them first, hugging Carter then Kelsey. Carter shook his head as he hugged Angela. "I can't believe you fixed the Rail Rescues to come get us."

"Well..." Angela cleared her throat and pushed her glasses up. Carter's confidence in her was sweet. "Not exactly fixed..."

"What did you do, then?" asked Joel, eyeing her worriedly.

Oh for- Angela rolled her eyes. "Remember last year in May?"

"No way," said Dana, blinking rapidly. "That was you borrowing the Rail Rescues?"

"Wouldn't that be going to borrow?" asked Kelsey, furrowing her brow.

Chad sighed. "Can we go home now?"

Angela nodded and turned, catching Jen's gaze. Jen smiled slightly then turned to her team. "Time to get back, guys."

"Hang on," said Katie as she turned to the three strangers. She took a blaster from the Black guy, giving him what looked like a flare instead. "This is a very tricky century," she said. "If you ever wind up in the past, don't let anyone know where you came from." She gave him a little shake when he just looked at her skeptically. "I mean it."

"Okay, okay," the guy said, looking a bit freaked out.

His companions handed her their blasters with big grins on their faces. "Have a safe trip," said the woman.

"And good luck fighting evil!" said the man.

Lucas looked past everyone. "Hey, aren't those the statues from that twenty eighth cult?"

Turning, Angela raised her eyebrows as she spotted three very strange statues standing there. "Weird."

"Yeah..." said Carter, trading a look with Kelsey and squirming a bit.

"We need to get back to 2001," said Wes, looking at Lucas. "Porticon's still on the loose."

Jen started walking backwards to Rail Rescue One, giving Wes a narrow eyed look. "And then we all give full reports of what happened," she said.

With her team following, Angela headed to Rail Rescue One herself. She glanced over to see Wes start for the Rail Rescues, only to stop suddenly before he ran into Eric. Eric raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms as Wes stumbled back awkwardly. Wes rubbed at the back of his neck and gestured for Eric to go first. Eric rolled his eyes, turned on his heel and stalked towards the Rail Rescues.

Angela gave Carter a curious look. "What was that about?"

Carter traded an equally confused look with Kelsey. "No idea. I mean, I thought-"

"But we could be wrong," said Kelsey, pointedly. Carter nodded then gave Angela an apologetic smile.

She shook her head as she walked into the engine room. She'd get the story out of them later. Katie was staring at the Time Force laptop. She pointed at the screen and looked at Trip. "Where's Circuit?"

"He's in the Q-Rex' cockpit," said Trip as Angela settled into her seat.

"The Q-Rex has a cockpit?" said Wes in surprise. He looked at Eric curiously from across the engine's cockpit. "You never use it."

Eric rolled his eyes. "Have you actually seen the Q-Rex? It's like a dog. I refuse to fight mutants by riding around in a giant metal puppy."

Lucas snorted.

Angela rolled her eyes and looked over at Circuit. "Circuit, we need a portal home."

"Coming right up!"

The portal dilated open and Angela started the Rail Rescues moving. "It gets a little bumpy," she said as they slid into the portal.

Eric snorted as the kaleidoscope of colours swirled around them one last time. At least, Angela thought he had, it was hard to hear anything over the rattling. She gritted her teeth and looked for the pinhole of white light. There is was! She grinned, watching it race towards them. Almost there.

There was a flash and jarring thumping. Sand and water arced up on either side of the Rail Rescues. Angela grinned, bringing the train to a stop. "We're home."

*

Wes grinned, sharing a relieved look with Katie. He never thought he'd be so happy to see the south-east beach. He filed out with the others, taking a moment to breathe the fresh air. He turned to tease Carter about escorting them back to Mariner Bay a second time when a barrage of blaster fire rained down on them, kicking up sand.

"You pesky Rangers never know when to quit, do you?" shouted Porticon, as a couple dozen Cyclobots lines up and aimed their blasters at the Rangers. Porticon held up his machine and Wes braced himself, reaching for his morpher. If he could just- Blaster fire knocked the machine out of Porticon's hands and it fell to the ground in pieces.

Wes looked over to see Eric smirking as he lowered his blaster. Porticon let out an enraged yell. Jen stepped forward, holding up her morpher. "Ready?" she said.

Wes grinned, nodding. "Ready!" he said in unison with the others.

"Time for Time Force!"

"Quantum Power!"

"Lightspeed Rescue!"

"Titanium Power!"

"Oh yeah," said Joel, rolling his shoulders. "It's good to be back."

"Let's do it, guys!" said Carter, dropping into ready stance.

Wes smirked as the Cyclobots charged. He ducked a swipe and spun, kicking it in the head. He punched another one, rolled out of the way of a blast and then Eric was at his back. Wes could hear his own voice in the back of his head, repeating 'my boyfriend'. Wes ruthlessly pushed it out of his head and ducked a swipe from a Cyclobot. Now was so not the time to start trying to figure out how he fell back in love with Eric - and out of love with Jen.

"Your left," snapped Eric. Wes dodged to the right as Eric sent the charging Cyclobot flying. He kicked out at the Cyclobot going for Eric. A cyclobot crashed at Wes' feet, its chest sparking. Carter lowered his blaster as he came up to Wes and Eric. "Wes, duck," said Eric.

Wes ducked and Eric flipped over him, kicking back two Cyclobots. Carter kicked the nearest one down. Wes pulled his blaster and shot the other one. "Should we pull out the Battlizers?" asked Carter, ducking a swipe and punching the Cyclobot.

"Eric's the one who's going to have to finish him," said Wes, kicking a Cyclobot's feet out from under it. "We need to freeze him and send him back to his tim-" Porticon let out a roar, knocking Jen, Dana and Lucas back. He ripped something off his chest and started growing. Wes grimaced, so much for that plan. "Never mind."

Jen clicked her comm. "Circuit, we need the Zords!"

"They're on the way!"

"Q-Rex!" snapped Eric, pressing a button. "Megazord Mode!" The Q-Rex let out a roar as it charged towards the battle, shifting into its more humanoid form.

Wes tapped his comm as he saw the Time Fliers closing in. "Time Jet!" He nodded to Carter, then ran for the Time Jet.

He jumped on, tugging Trip up as he tripped slightly. "Can we finish this soon?" said Trip, gripping the Time Jet hard. "It's been a long day."

"I'm all for that," said Lucas.

Wes grinned and flew towards the Time Fliers. They jumped into their Fliers and Wes gripped his controls. "Okay, guys, Mode Red!"

The Fliers slotted into formation, and they landed on the ground just in time to see the Q-Rex slapping Porticon across the face with its tail. Wes thought he could hear Eric mutter something about a Dragonzord over the comm, but Porticon charged them and he had to focus on making the Megazord dodge.

They slashed at Porticon, knocking him back a few steps. Then Porticon started laughing. Wes felt his stomach drop, because that was never good. "I think it's time to put the odds in my favour," it said. It pressed a button on its arm and suddenly there were three Porticons.

"Shit," said Eric.

"Come on, guys!" said Jen. They charged, slashing for the centre Porticon. The right one hit them hard on their side.

"Q-Rex! Launch missiles!" All three Porticons staggered back under the barrage.

"Now!" shouted Wes. They brought up their shield, smashing it into the right Porticon, while slashing the one on the left. The centre one charged them, pushing the Megazord back. "Let go," said Wes through gritted teeth, trying to dislodge him.

"Beast mode!" shouted Eric. And then the Q-Rex was there. It bit into Porticon's arm and pulled it off the Megazord.

"Look out!" said Lucas. Wes looked in time to see one of the other Porticon's bringing its arm down for a slash and he braced for impact. There was a clang as Porticon's arm hit a sword blocking the way.

"Thought you guys could use a hand," said Carter over the comm.

Wes laughed. "Alright!"

"I call the one on the left," said Eric. Wes could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Middle one's ours," said Katie.

"Whatever happened to letting the guests have first pick?" asked Joel.

Wes shook his head in amusement. "Let's finish this!" They started the Megazord forward. Porticon blasted energy at them and they brought up the shield, reflecting the energy back. They brought the sword, slashing Porticon across the face. It fell down hard.

A second Porticon crashed onto it and the Q-Rex let out a roar. "Incoming!" shouted Carter, as the third Porticon landed onto the pile.

"Blizzard Slash!" shouted Wes, holding up the sword. He started to bring it down, and one of the Porticons kicked out at them, making the Megazord stumble back. "Shit," said Wes, losing his footing. "Eric!"

"On it. Max Blizzard!" The Q-Rex's canons blasted Porticon and he shrank and melded back together.

"Yeah!" shouted Trip, jumping and pumping his fist into the air.

Wes laughed. "Come on," he said. Jen keyed in the disassemble sequence and they quickly jumped out. Wes turned to watch the Time Fliers return thought their portal. Lucas jogged over to contain Porticon.

"Okay, guys," said Ryan, hand to the side of his helmet. "Ms Fairweather says to get the Rail Rescues back into the train, it's time to send them home."

Wes watched curiously. The head of the Megazord came off first, shifting into a green flyer, which was most likely Joel's then. Then Megazord's arms extended down the ground and suddenly the upper torso was rising up as the lower torso walked forward on its own.

"Cool!" said Trip.

The upper torso, which was red and probably Carter's, lowered slowly, unfolding into a fire truck. It immediately started backing up towards the train. Joel's flyer hovered over the lower torso and lowered a couple of clamps. Then it rose, bringing the blue lower torso with it. Chad then. The yellow and white legs both lowered some kind of ramps on their backs, then they started lowering themselves.

Joel's flyer rested Chad's Zord on the ground as it folded back into a water truck. Chad's Zord followed Dana and Kelsey's towards the train, while Joel's flyer hovered over the third car before touching down within it. Once the four vehicles had back onto the ramps, they closed up. Ms. Fairweather came out of the train's engine car, carrying Jen's computer.

The Lightspeed Rangers came jogging out behind them. Ms Fairweather looked back, like she was mentally counting them, then she pressed a couple of buttons on the computer. The Lightspeed Train started up and a portal dilated open in front of it. Wes watched as the train headed into the portal, then the portal closed behind it.

"Great," said Eric. He pointed at the Q-Rex. "You guys wanna get your bird out of my Zord now?"

Wes rolled his eyes, and turned his attention to Carter as he came up. He gripped the hand Carter held out. "Thanks for the help," he said. "We'd offer to escort you back to Mariner Bay, but after last time..."

Carter laughed. "Any time you guys need a hand, just give us a call."

"Deal." Wes grinned. Not a bad day at all.

End.


End file.
